Environmental Health Engineering and Management Journal
Volume:10 Issue: 2, Spring 2023

SARS-CoV was first identified in 2003 but SARS-CoV-2, which gained its recognition again in 2019 as COVID-19, has been a crucial threat worldwide and has caused more death rates than the SARS-CoV but till now no confined treatments are available. The present study aimed to investigate the efficacy of camphene against various structural and functional mutants of SARS-CoV-2 using reverse docking protocol.

To investigate the efficacy of camphene as a potential antiviral drug against COVID-19, against of all possible target proteins in SARS-CoV-2, which could lead to a new platform for drug discovery. Reverse pharmacology (Reverse docking) approach was performed, which involved docking of camphene and 20 structural and non-structural proteins (NSPs) of SARS-CoV-2 performed using maestro 12.8 of Schrödinger.

The results were evaluated since the minimum binding energy obtained after docking and camphene was effective against most of the proteins responsible for SARS-CoV-2, but camphene showed greater efficacy against the main protease (protease 9), which is main functional protein of
SARS-CoV-2. Hence, the study proves that camphene can be a good drug candidate for different mutants of SARS-CoV-2.

Protease 9, which is the main functional protein of SARS-CoV-2, expressed the best binding affinity with camphene having the minimum binding energy (-5.616). Hence, it is concluded that camphene could be the drug contender against protease 9 as it is a more potent target in SARSCoV-2. This could be a major finding, as camphene is related to camphor, which is already very beneficial against many respiratory problems.

The appropriate management of hospital wastewater is an essential process to prevent the spread of pathogenic strains of bacteria including Escherichia coli in this study, the antibiotic resistance, virulence characteristics, and phylogenetic diversity of E. coli isolated from the raw and treated hospital wastewater in a general hospital in the west of Iran were evaluated.

E. coli isolates were recovered and identified using culture and biochemical tests. Sixty isolates were used and antimicrobial resistance, virulence genes, antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs), and phylogeny groups of isolates were determined using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. The antibiotic resistance was tested using disk diffusion.

The antibiotic susceptibility testing indicated that the resistance to co-trimoxazole was the most common, followed by ceftriaxone, amikacin, and gentamicin. Multi-drug resistance (MDR) was observed in 90% of raw and 96.66% of treated sewage isolates. The phylogeny groups B1 and A were the most common groups among isolates of raw and treated sewage, respectively. The most common virulence genes detected were sfa, papC, and fyuA; while pic and sepA genes were not found in the isolates. The most common ARGs were blaTEM (in 90% isolates of raw and 92.5% of treated sewage) and blaCTX-M (in 60% isolates of raw and 77.5% of treated sewage). The blaSHV-5 gene was not detected among isolates.

The results highlight the potential of hospital wastewater as a source for spreading the virulent and multi drug-resistant strains of E. coli.

Petroleum hydrocarbons that are released from industrial processes cause damage to aquatic life and degrade ecosystems by accumulating in the food chain, allowing living organisms to produce toxic secretions.

In this study, a pumice stone was used to remove total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) from industrial wastewater in the south refinery company in Iraq/Basrah by coagulation and flocculation processes using the design of experiments (DOE) approach using the method of analyzing screening designs and measurement of the samples using GC instrument.

The maximum removal was 99% at pH 3, coagulation dose of 0.5 g, and time of 60 min, and a comparison was made between the DOE and the multiple linear regression (MLR) to determine the effectiveness of the system used, which proved its incredible effectiveness.

According to the results, a great convergence between the actual and prediction results of removal was found, while MLR was very far from the actual and predicted removal results. The high efficiency of pumice stone was found in removing petroleum hydrocarbons from the industrial wastewater of the South Refineries Company. Pumice stone is widely available in the market and cheap economically.

This study aimed to assess the specific absorption rate (SAR) due to the exposure to the radiations from different brands of cellphones, and to compare it with guideline values. The SAR is calculated using the mathematic equation based on the measured energy.

In this regard, 204 cellphones from different brands were randomly surveyed. A questionnaire composed of demographic and self-reported questions was designed to survey the students’ awareness and attitude about cellphone brands, usage duration and observed health effects. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used for statistical analysis at frequencies of 900 and 1800 MHz and the differences between brands were assessed by the Kruskal-Wallis test.

According to the results, it was found that 46.7% and 8.4% of people used cellphones for less than 4 and more than 12 hours per day, respectively. According to the statistical tests, students with higher talk time, sent messages, and Internet usage, and those using wireless hands-free, had the most reported symptoms of headache, tinnitus, eye burning and eyestrain, sleep disturbances, and skin color changes.

The authors found that there was no significant difference between different brands based on the SAR values. However, Samsung and Nokia brands had the highest SAR values and ASUS brand had the lowest ones. Also, the type of game apps (online/offline) was significantly correlated with possible health effects. Therefore, regarding these cases, as well as the fact that many dangers of cellphone use are unknown, it is recommended to use cellphones cautiously.

One of the most critical contributors to air pollution is particulate matter (PM2.5) that its acute or chronic exposure causes serious health effects to human. Accurate forecasting of PM2.5 concentration is essential for air pollution control and prevention of health complications. A survey of the available scientific literature on random forest model for PM2.5 prediction is presented here.

The scientific literature is extracted from Science Direct database based on a set of specified search criteria. The input features, data length, and evaluation parameters used in PM2.5 prediction were analyzed in this study.

The study shows that majority of the publications are aimed at the daily prediction of outdoor PM2.5. Most publications base their PM2.5 prediction on features aerosol optical depth (AOD) and boundary layer height (BLH). PM10 and NO2 are the main air pollutants employed in the PM2.5 estimation. Majority studies utilized input data lengths covering more than one year, and the effectiveness of prediction models are unaffected by the length of investigation. The coefficient of determination, R2, is the primary evaluation parameter used in all publications. The majority of research study indicated R2 values greater than 0.85, demonstrating the reasonable dependability and efficiency of random forest regression-based PM2.5 prediction models.

The study demonstrates that the publications use a variety of meteorological and geological features for PM2.5 estimation, depending on the context of the research as well as data accessibility. The findings demonstrate that it is hard to pinpoint the optimal model in any particular way.

Recently, sulfate radical-based photocatalytic processes have attracted significant interests because of unique advantages in pollutants purification. In this study, TiO2-Fe3O4 nanocomposites in the presence of persulfate and under ultraviolet light-emitting diode (UV-LED) irradiation were applied for reactive red 198 removal with a focus on the main operating parameters such as pH, persulfate molar concentration, irradiation time, and catalyst dosages in different initial concentrations.

The nanoparticles were synthesized by co-precipitation technique. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis were used to evaluate TiO2- Fe3O4 nanocomposites. The response surface methodology (RSM) was employed for modeling and optimization. The kinetics and mechanisms of decolorization by sulfate and hydroxyl radicals were investigated. The mineralization of dye was evaluated using total organic carbon (TOC) analysis.

Modeling and optimization through RSM showed that the maximum decolorization of reactive red 198 is accursed an initial concentration of 10-50 mg/L was reached under UV-LED irradiation of 62-85 min, persulfate concentration = 0.8-1 mM, 0.19-0.3 g/L TiO2-Fe3O4 nanocomposites concentration, and pH = 3. The kinetics of process was in agreement with pseudo-first order. The mineralization of reactive red 198 during the optimum conditions was determined at about 61.1% and 49.6%, meanwhile, the decolorization efficiency in the same conditions was approximately 98.1% and 87.6%, respectively.

The use of TiO2-Fe3O4 nanocomposites under UV-LED irradiation in the presence of persulfate can be used as an efficient and promising method for dye removal from textile wastewater.

Based on the previous studies, antibiotics can have affected biological properties of biomass and fouling properties of mixed liquor in aeration tank. The present study was conducted to explore the fouling mechanisms of membrane bioreactor (MBR) system during the treatment of wastewater containing erythromycin (ERY) antibiotic under several mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentrations.

A lab-scale two-chamber MBR system equipped with a polypropylene hollow fiber submerged membrane was fed with synthetic wastewater containing different initial concentrations of ERY. MBR system was operated under the constant flux mode and different MLSS concentrations (5.0-13.0 g/L) and the obtained results were evaluated using different individual and combined fouling models.

The variation of MLSS concentrations had not significantly affected the kind of best-fitted model. From the individual models, the standard model indicated the best performance for permeate prediction under different MLSS concentrations (R2 adj > 0.997). For all studied MLSS concentrations, the R2 adj values of combined fouling models were higher than 0.986 and demonstrated good fitness performance of combined models compared to individual models. Overall, the cake-intermediate model showed the lowest fitness, and cake-complete and complete-standard models were the most successful models in filtrated volume prediction in comparison with other combined fouling models.

This study indicated that mechanistic models are suitable for fouling prediction of MBR systems in ERY removal and under a wide range of MLSS concentrations and provide valuable information on fouling mechanisms of full-scale MBR systems.

Toxic metals enter the human food chain through water, soil, and plants. High consumption of dairy products makes it necessary to measure their concentrations in milk and its products.

In this study, four samples of dairy products, including milk, dough, yogurt, and cream were selected. They were spiked with concentrations of 0, 20, 40, and 60 μg/kg of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) separately. In all samples, the concentration of these metals was determined using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GFAAS) after microwave, wet, and dry ashing digestion methods. To select the best digestion method, recovery percentage, linearity of increasing concentrations, relative standard deviation (RSD), and the limit of detection were used.

According to the results, the RSD of all measurements was less than 5%. The instrument detection limit for Pb and Cd were 0.188 and 0.157 μg/L, respectively. The recovery efficiency of all digested samples by three methods was between 75.7% and 120%. According to the linearity index and R2, the microwave digestion method with 90 to 110% efficiency was the best for Pb-spiked samples, and the dry digestion method was the best for Cd spiked samples.

Considering all indexes, microwave digestion was the best method for Pb and Cd samples.

This study aimed to provide a comprehensive tool for the economic evaluation of investments in health, safety, and environment (HSE).

This developmental cross-sectional study was conducted on the costs and benefits of HSE investments in a combined cycle power plant in Gilan province, 2021. The components of preventive measure costs (PMCs) and occupational accidents, diseases, and environmental pollution costs (ADPCs) were determined by an expert panel and review of scientific literature. The HSE economic assessment tool (HSE-EAT) was developed in Microsoft Excel software using macro/visual basic coding. The tool was designed to determine the efficient measures using the cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and the combination of control measures with the highest financial benefits using the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA).

The application of the HSE-EAT in a combined cycle power plant showed the highest return on investment (ROI) for installation of drains for ducts of diesel fuel pipes and the lowest ROI value for renovation of emergency eyewash and shower. The ratio of indirect to direct benefits of implementing the preventive measures in the worst-case and best-case scenarios were 3.0 and 1.3, respectively.

The HSE-EAT exhibited the advantages of comprehensiveness, flexibility, being userfriendly, and faster and more accurate calculations and could be also used for economic evaluation of health, safety and environmental initiatives in other industries and organizations.

Zayandeh-rud river is the most important river in the central regions of Iran and the present study aimed to provide new insights into microplastics (MPs) pollution in surface water and sediments of this river.

Water and sediment samples were collected in July 2021 from 19 sampling sites along the river. Organics matters were removed from the samples by wet peroxide oxidation (WPO), and MPs were extracted by floatation in ZnCl2-saturated salt and filtration on a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane filter. Trapped MPs on the filter were counted and qualified by a stereomicroscope.

MPs were found in 13 sites from 19 sampling sites along the river. The minimum and maximum levels of MPs in water samples were 0 and 51 ± 16.5 particles/m3, respectively. MPs also were detected in the sediments of all sampling sites except the first two sampling sites (the maximum level was 58 ± 25.9 particles/kg as dry sediment). Fragments were the most common shape of MPs in both water and sediment samples. 72.3% of MPs detected in water samples were 1-5 mm in size, while this percentage for sediment was 49.2%. The five main polymer types found in water and sediment samples were polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

These levels of MPs in the water and sediments of Zayandeh-rud river and longtime persistence of plastics in the environment is a significant threat to environmental and human health and need serious attention to restrict MPs release into the river.

Environmental pollution caused by microplastics (MPs) is quite ubiquitous and has become a global issue. Several studies have focused on MPs in marine and freshwater systems. However, there is a paucity of data about the presence of MPs in sea products like table salt and the risks they likely pose. Hence, this study investigated the presence of MPs in commonly consumed commercial table salts in South-West, Nigeria.

A total of 8 different brands of commonly consumed commercial salts were purchased from open supermarkets in Ogun and Lagos States, Nigeria. Salt samples were digested with 30% H2O2, extracted for MPs, and observed under a digital microscope for shape, quantity, and colour.

Fibres and fragments were the plastic shapes found in the samples, with fibres being more prominent. The average content of MPs obtained was 12 particles/kg. Blue, pink, and purple colours of MPs were commonly found. The sizes of MPs were between 50 μm and 1 mm. Considering our findings and based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) recommended daily intake of 5 g of salt, Nigerian adults will consume an average rate of 21.9 microplastic particles/year.

According to the results of the study, table salts commonly consumed in Nigeria are polluted with MPs. Due to the importance of table salt as related to daily food intakes, it becomes very necessary to fine-tune technologies in their production to improve the quality and lower MPs ingested by consumers in Nigeria.

Heavy metal pollution has become one of the most severe environmental problems, therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate removal of cadmium (Cd) from aqueous solution.

In the present study, nano Prosopis cineraria leaf ash (NPCLA) was used as an adsorbent for removing Cd from aqueous solution. Contact time, initial pH of the solutions, sorbent dosages, and initial Cd (II) concentration were considered as parameters affecting Cd removal efficiency. The experiments were designed by Design of Expert (DOE) software.

It was revealed that an NPCLA dosage of 2.45 gL-1, pH of 6.3, and initial Cd (II) concentration of 20.7 mgL-1 in contact time of 60 min was the optimum condition for removal of Cd (II) in the domain of experiments and at this optimum condition, the prediction value of removal efficiency was found 99.9%. Based on the results of kinetics experiments, the sorption system and experiment data of Cd (II) adsorption on the NPCLA followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Freundlich, Langmuir, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and Temkin isotherm models were investigated. The equilibrium adsorption data were fitted well with linearly transformed Langmuir isotherm with a correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.9877, and the maximum sorption capacity of NPCLA was obtained to be 25.25 mgg-1.

In laboratory conditions, NPCLA can remove Cd from aqueous solution with a high efficiency. Therefore, due to this plant’s availability and cheapness, NPCLA can be considered a suitable option for producing adsorbents on industrial scales.