Iranian Journal of health, Safety and environment
Volume:1 Issue: 1, Winter 2014

Discharge of textile industries colored wastewaters without enough treatment into natural water supplies cause serious damages to the environment. This study was performed to investigate the effect of electrocoagulation for dye removal from synthetic wastewater using iron electrodes. Removal of dye reactive orange 16 (RO16) by electrocoagulation using iron electrode was conducted in a batch reactor with volume 1 liter. The effect of operating parameters such as current density, initial concentration of dye, pH and contact time was studied and the electrical energy consumption was calculated. The maximum efficiency of hardness removal which was obtained in current density of 20mA/cm2, optimum concentration 50mg L-1, optimum pH 5.5, reaction time of 30 min and NaCL concentration 1.5g/l are equal to 99.27%. Also COD removal efficiency is increased to 66%. Results show, electrocoagulation process by iron electrode is an effective method for reactive dye removal from colored wastewater.

Environmental impacts and health concerns of BTEX compounds have been pointed in many studies. The agencies responsible for health and environment have delivered standard and guideline for BTEX concentrations. Because of the extensive use in industries and the presence of these compounds in fossil fuels, their emission resources are very divers. Todays, Control of air pollution caused by these compounds is one of the air qualities controlling challenges. "Thermal catalyzed" process is one of the technologies to control this kind of air pollution and consistent with using nanoparticles as a catalyst, this process is further considered now. So, we conducted this study to survey elimination of the BTEX, form polluted air flow, by this process. In this study, removal of the BTEX from polluted air by a thermal catalyzed process in the presence of zero-valent iron and copper oxide nanoparticles was investigated and the effect of changes in pollution load and flow rate was surveyed on removal efficiency and the decomposition of the pollutants. Fe0 and Cu2O nanoparticles were coated on a bed of natural zeolite (Clinoptilolite) with a zeolite grains size of 1-2 mm. The thermal catalyst process was conducted at 350°C and different pollution loading and air flow rate. 96.18% and 78.42% of removal efficiency achieved with the retention times of 14.1s and 7.05s. Increasing the pollution load reduced removal efficiency and pollutant's mineralization. By doubling the pollution load, the removal efficiency declined as much as 14.5 %. According to the results, increasing of the flow rate has a greater effect than the pollution load on the complete decomposition. Also this process showed a good efficiency for BTEX removal under high pollution loading and flow rates.

The electrokinetic remediation process has been intensively investigated by many researchers as a novel technique to remove different pollutants from soil. The process utilizes a direct-current electric field to soils to insert some process such as electroosmosis and electrolytic migration. In the present study, the removal of pyrene as a model of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD). The electrokinetic experiment was performed using an electrokinetic setup that includes an electric power supply, a plexiglass soil box and two square stainless steel electrodes electrodes. In the optimum condition, electrode type, moisture and voltage were determined as stainless steel, 30% and 12 volt, respectively. Pyrene removal efficiency in optimum condition estimated 80.05 %. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) exhibited a reasonable correlation coefficient between the predicted and experimental values (R2=0.95).These results showed that electrokinetic remediation process could be applied as an efficient technique for pyrene removal.

Needle stick injuries (NSIs) are one of the most significant and preventable hazards in relation to Healthcare workers (HCWs). Such injuries have been shown to be of high prevalence within developing countries. To determine the prevalence and circumstances pertaining to the occurrence of NSIs among HCWs employed at a special hospital. The study conducted was a cross-sectional study on HCWs and was carried out in one of Tehran's special hospitals in the year 2012. In this study, in order to identify and determine hazardous potential due to needle stick, HFMEA method was chosen. This resulted in the collection of 240 valid and reliable questionnaires. The validity and reliable nature of the questionnaires was confirmed by experts and by means of the test re-test method. The gathered data was analyzed with SPSS software, version 16.From the analysis of the data it was shown that, a total of 97 (40.42%) HCWs had suffered NSIs in the last year. The patient ward showed the highest prevalence of NSIs (47.42%) in the hospital. Nurses had the highest risk of suffering NSIs (56.7%) in comparison with the other occupational groups. All in all 175 NSIs occurred for the 240 HCWs trialed during the selected period of clinical practice. Of those that received injuries, only roughly 1 in 3 (38.14%) reported it to their infection control officer. Just over a quarter (26.80%) of the injured HCWs used post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) against HIV. Almost all (88.75%) of the HCWs had received a safe injection course. In general, NSIs and their subsequent underreporting are commonplace among hospital healthcare professionals. Significantly, more than two-thirds of the injured HCWs did not use post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) against HIV. Improved prevention and reporting strategies are needed if the occupational health and safety of healthcare workers is to improve.

The use of technology in industries is ever increasing. With the introduction of this technology come new safety and human performance concerns. Hearing loss caused by industrial noise has been recognized for many years, and protection of employee hearing has been made mandatory by governmental agencies. This paper presents an investigation of occupational noise exposure and Personal hearing protective devices (PHPD) in selected industries in the south-eastern Iran. A questionnaire has been used to collect data for workers with high noise exposure and Personal hearing protective devices (PHPD). The subjects were 354 industrial workers expose to noise pressure levels greater than the action level defined in Iranian legislation (85dB (A) 8h/d. The results of this study indicated that only younger workers with minor professional experience and with high educational background are used PHPD to protect and preserve their hearing. The finding of this study shows that approximately 75% of the workers with age 18-36 reported the use of personal protective Devices at all the time, and 73% of workers with age more than 46 years old reported that they had never used them PHPD, even though it was mandatory in their workplaces. Statistical data show that, the percentage of male workers (82) with age more than 37 years old having headaches at workplace are higher than female (3.4) with the same age groups. A noise training and education program must be developed for industrial employees in order to protect them from hazardous noise pollution. Employers must play an important role in promoting the regular use of Personal hearing protective devices. Noise level in work areas must be considered in the early design of Hearing Conservation Program.

The aim of this study was to investigate the statistical screening of hexavalent chromium, Cr (VI), from an aqueous solution using brown seaweed Sargassum as a biosorbent. The biosorption process conditions were evaluated with the statistical screening followed by Plackett-Burman design. The effect of solution pH, contact time, initial chromium and nitrate concentrations were studied. The experimental data were fitted to the Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models. Plackett-Burman design showed the contact time and pH are the most important parameters influencing the Cr (VI) biosorption onto Sargassum. The optimum pH, contact time, the initial biosorbent dosage and initial Cr (VI) and nitrate concentration were found to be 3, 120 min, 1.3 g, 50 mg/L and 1000 mg/L, respectively. The results indicated that the Freundlich model was the most suitable for Cr (VI) biosorption onto Sargassum.

Microwave is part of the electromagnetic spectrum that has different application such as communications, military, air-traffic Control and etc... Previous studies showed that radar frequency could be a health hazard agent. This review article mentioned some of the studies that investigated non-thermal effects of radar frequencies. Reproductive effects, cancers, blood effects, genetic, adverse immune effects and mental effects are non-thermal effects that presented in this report. There are many unknown aspects of the biological effects and many of them did not determined very well such as oxidative stress and mental effects. Compliance with permissible exposure limits, reduction in exposure, and shielding are some of the controlling methods to protect workers from the exposure of microwave and among them, The use of shielding is a superior method for prevention of microwave exposure and among them, electromagnetic Nano composites shields is appropriate for protection of workers from radar exposure.