Journal of Advances in Environmental Health Research
Volume:11 Issue: 3, Summer 2023

Access to clean water is one of the primary and essential needs of humans in terms of its physical, chemical, and biological properties. Every year, many people die from water-borne diseases. Household water treatment devices play a significant role on supplying water needed by different countries. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of these household water purification devices on the physical, chemical, and microbiological quality of water in different cities of Iran. This review has used different databases in Iran and Iranian studies in other international databases. Studies that did not investigate the characteristics of water were excluded, and the studies passed the quality criteria of this review as well as its data were analyzed. The studies showed that the average concentration of water parameters such as total hardness, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen, sulfate, and nitrate in the output water of these devices had decreased. Also, residual chlorine in the outlet water of all samples was lower than the standard value. To use household water purification devices, in addition to considering the benefits of using these devices, we should also pay attention to the reduction of physicochemical and microbiological quality of water.

Solid waste management is one of the important aspects of the hospital management.

In this study, we examined the quantity and composition of medical solid waste in eight private hospitals in Tehran. For this purpose, a checklist was used through interviews with hospital waste management staff as well as collecting information on hospital waste generation. The annual average of obtained data was analyzed in this study.

The results indicated that the private hospitals under study generated solid waste ranging from 24 to 1091 kg/day. The average medical waste generation in the studied privative hospitals was 4 kg/bed/day equal to 5.09 kg/patient/day. Common waste accounted for 70.73% of total hospital solid waste, while infectious and sharp waste accounted for 31.04% of the hospital solid waste. Infectious wastes were disinfected using autoclave in all hospitals.

Segregation of infectious waste from hospital waste mass reduces the environmental and health risk of hospital waste and reduces the cost of waste management in private hospitals.

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive method used to evaluate the environmental effects throughout the entire lifespan (from creation to disposal) of a product or process. In this study, we conducted an analysis of the environmental impact associated with generating 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity in a combined-cycle power plant located in the southwest region of Iran. An LCA following ISO 14044 standards was conducted via the ReCiPe method evaluating 10 impact categories at the midpoint level, and covering the entire life cycle. This method was selected for its comprehensive modeling of potential impacts from numerous chemicals and its practicality at both midpoint and endpoint levels. The study found that resource availability (RA) has the highest impact at 53% in endpoint categories, mainly due to natural land transformation (NLT) and fuel depletion (FD). Human health (HH) contributes 43%, while ecosystem diversity (ED) has a minor 4% role. In midpoint categories, over 99% of global warming potential (GWP) and climate change (CC) are from CO2 emissions due to fossil fuel combustion. Midpoint analysis identified NLT, FD, CC, freshwater ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, human toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, and water depletion as the most impacted categories by the power plant. However, at the endpoint level, RA, HH, and ED were the primary concerns. Fossil fuel use significantly shaped the environmental impact throughout the power plant’s life cycle.

The study aimed to assess surface water resources for potential use during nonirrigation seasons to boost groundwater aquifers. This method also helps reduce aquifer depletion, mitigate land subsidence, and enhance groundwater quality. In this study, artificial feeding methods were used to determine the appropriate location for the Ghaemshahr plain. Water resources were tested in terms of quantity and quality through field and laboratory studies. Based on the findings, geographic information system (GIS) mapping was utilized to create maps and select the best location and feeding method. The most important source of nutrition for recharging the aquifer in terms of quantity and quality was the Talar River. The study area’s conditions like aquifer thickness, permeability, topographic slope, and land use were analyzed using GIS and thematic maps. The results indicated that by using these methods, it is possible to store 5 million cubic meters of surface water in the aquifer for 6 months. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using surface waters in the area for artificial feeding, employing the pond method1. Additionally, it is recommended to dig measuring wells to monitor the water level rise at the bottom of the pond 1. It also suggests the use of simulation software like PMVIN, Mod flow, and GMS to optimize the artificial replenishment process and select the most suitable approach from the defined scenarios before taking any actions.

One of the concerns faced by many countries, especially developing countries, is the presence of heavy metals in water, air and food, which directly and indirectly cause adverse effects on human health through inhalation and ingestion. Rudbar city is suitable for growing olives due to its climatic conditions, and most of the people living in the area use this product in their meals. The purpose of this study was to determine the amount of heavy metals manganese, iron, copper, zinc (Zn), lead and cadmium in the olives of this area. For this purpose, 13 olive samples were selected and their heavy metal concentration was measured by ICP-OES device. The results indicated that the concentrations of cadmium, lead, manganese, iron, Zn and copper in the samples of Guilan olives were 0.056 ± 0.019, 0.564 ± 0.170, 2.017 ± 0.211, 7.577 ± 1.312, 1.846 ± 0.387 and 4.147 ± 0.901, respectively. Also, in the imported samples it was 0.065 ± 0.014, 0.494 ± 0.153, 1.295 ± 0.353, 3.465 ± 1.066, 1.357. 0.412 and 4.103 ± 1.335, respectively. Except for one, the amount of lead in all Iranian samples was less than the allowable level. It was also observed that except for lead, the concentration of all metals in foreign samples was lower than Iranian samples. Since olives are one of the most popular food items in the area and considered by travelers, continuous monitoring of the heavy metals in this food is essential.

Bio-remediation methods of organic pollutants are promising due to their high efficiency, low cost, and green chemistry. These methods are effective alternatives to traditional elimination methods. Bacillus cereus PTCC 1015S strain was used to eliminate acid blue 113 (AB113) and acid orange 7 (AO7) from aqueous solutions. The bacteria were activated in the Luria Bertani Broth (MILLER) culture medium. The effective parameters such as incubation time and temperature, pH of dye solution, dye concentration, and the bacterial inoculation quantity on decolorization were investigated. Kinetic and thermodynamic studies were done to clarify the different aspects of the introduced method. Also, the reliability of the method to remove studied dyes was investigated in dye factory wastewater samples. The first-order kinetic model was the best model to describe the kinetics of decolorization. The obtained thermodynamic data showed that the elimination process was endothermic (ΔH0 = + 29.03, 30.53) while it was spontaneous (ΔG0 < 0) for both studied dyes and so entropy change (ΔS0 = + 109.63, 116.32) was an effective force in the decolorization. Under optimized conditions, B. cereus PTCC 1015S showed high average removal; 98.5 and 99.3 % for AB113 and AO7 respectively in dye model solutions. The removal efficiency was more than 85 % for bothstudied dyes in wastewater spiked samples. The B. cereus PTCC 1015 strain was capable of being exploited in the removal of AB113 and AO7 dye molecules as an affordable and eco-amiable method for the treatment of aqueous samples contaminated with the studied azo dyes.

This study was done to investigate the impact of drought stress, inorganic and organic Fe sources on biodegradation of crude oil in the Cd polluted soil under cultivation of canola inoculated with Piriformospora indica.

Treatments consist of soil application of pure iron from Fe sources ((Fe sulfate and Fe chelate) (0, 60 and 90 kg Fe pure/ha)), and canola plant inoculated with P. indica cultivated in the Cd (0, 15 and 20 mg Cd/kg soil)-polluted soil that was naturally polluted with crude oil under drought stress. After 70 days, the plants were harvested and the soil and shoot Cd concentration was determined using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). In addition, the biodegradation of crude oil was measured.

Using 90 kg/ha pure iron from iron chelate significantly improved the biodegradation of crude oil in the soil by 13.1 and 8.9% under normal soul moisture and drought stress, respectively. Plant inoculation with P. indica had significant effect on increasing the biodegradation of crude oil in the soil by 12.1%. Furthermore, the soil microbial respiration was also increased. The ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and peroxidase (POX) enzyme activity was significantly increased under heavy metal toxicity.

Using organic and inorganic Fe sources has significant effects in increasing the biodegradation of crude oil in the soil under normal soil moisture regime and drought stress. Regardless of soil moisture regime, plant inoculation with P. indica had significant effects on reducing the Cd concentration of the plant and increasing the biodegradation of crude oil in the soil, respectively.

The problem of waste littering in urban areas is a widespread issue in most cities and represents a significant challenge in waste management. Hence, this study aimed to assess the level of environmental pollution in urban areas in terms of litter density. The quantity of littered wastes (LWs) was examined across six residential areas, with observations and waste counting conducted over a two-month period on both working days and weekends. The LWs were categorized into four groups, and their on-site density was calculated. The results indicated that the average waste density in the locations studied was 5.08 number/m2. The lowest recorded LW number was 19.49 number/100 m, while the highest was 30.49 number/100 m. The categories of plastic and tobacco wastes comprised 13.25% and 82.64% of the total LWs, respectively. On average, 0.71 number/100 m of paper were observed in the areas studied, accounting for 2.8% of the total LWs. The presence of suitable waste bins in the areas surveyed underscores the significant influence of individual behavior on urban pollution. Therefore, there is a pressing need to raise awareness among citizens regarding the consequences of littering and to implement more effective urban cleanup methods.