Health in Emergencies and Disasters Quarterly
Volume:8 Issue: 3, Spring 2023

Due to the greenhouse gases emission caused by human activities there is wide agreement about global warming. Methane is one of the most dangerous greenhouse gases in the global warming process which is produced through human activities and natural processes. In addition, the use of fertilizers and chemical pesticides would produce nitrogen monoxide in the atmosphere. This gas is another greenhouse gas that takes its toll on global warming. 

In this study, we reviewed articles published between the years (2005-2022). Scientific resources were searched in both Persian and English using the keywords (meat-eating, climate change, cattle, pig, and food) in the databases (Magiran), Pubmed, Scopus, and Google Scholar.

Population growth, economic development, and urban migration have stimulated unprecedented demand for animal protein such as meat and dairy products so that livestock in the traditional way no longer met this need of man for protein. About two to three billion cows and pigs are slaughtered annually resulting in a very high methane emission in nature that accelerates global warming.

Shifting towards plant-rich diets and embracing alternative sources of protein could be helpful.

The increased risks and damages caused by disasters in recent years are significant and obvious. Meanwhile, the vulnerable group of children and adolescents are directly and indirectly affected by disasters. Therefore, training related to this field is necessary to improve their resilience. This study aims to identify the educational components of children and adolescents in disasters.

The present study is a multi-method study conducted in two review and qualitative sections, and then the results of these two sections are combined. The review section was conducted by searching the keywords “disaster,” “crisis,” “emergency,” “resilient,” “resiliency,” “resilience,” “child,” and “adolescence” without a time limit in Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed Emerald databases. The qualitative section was conducted with the content analysis method, and Graneheim and Lundman approach through in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 28 participants

The study showed that educational components were placed in two general and specialized components groups. General components include individual and social skills, and specialized components include principles and basics of disasters, self-relief, and other-relief skills.

Education is a crucial factor in the resilience of children and adolescents in disasters. In this study, the educational components of the resilience of children and adolescents in disasters are categorized into two general and specialized groups to prepare the educational package by considering the appropriate educational areas in each group and the participation of experts.

The COVID-19 epidemic was a biological disaster that may cause or exacerbate burnout in healthcare professionals (HCPs). Our goal was to determine the impact of the long-term COVID-19 epidemic on burnout in front-line healthcare workers and the factors affecting it.

This cross-sectional survey on front-line HCPs’ job burnout based on an online platform was conducted at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. The demographic characteristics, medical-work-related factors, and COVID-19 exposure were collected by the self-reported Farsi version of the Maslach burnout inventory questionnaire.

Out of 2100 sent questionnaires, 924 participants completed them (44% response rate) of which 280 were male (30.3%). Overall, 850(92%) respondents had a high level of emotional exhaustion, 872(94.4%) had a high level of depersonalization, and 112(12.1%) had a high reduced personal accomplishment. There was a significant relation between higher burnout levels with higher education levels, working in hospitals as clinical staff, and pre-hospital operational personnel as well as having direct contact with a significant number of COVID-19 Patients. A significant number of participants (94.2%) were in severe and moderate burnout levels.

There was a significant increase in job burnout among front-line HCPs during the COVID-19 epidemic compared to former similar studies at the beginning of the epidemic and non-epidemic periods. It is recommended that in disaster management planning, especially in long-standing ones like COVID-19, the proper programs should be considered for increasing the resilience of HCPs.

Mazandaran Province is one of the provinces with a high suicide rate. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the epidemiology of relief missions following suicide in the pre-hospital emergency system of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences.

This descriptive study was conducted from September 2019 to 2021 in the pre-hospital emergency department of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Statistical information related to the missions carried out after suicide was extracted using the data contained in the emergency national mission form recorded in Asayar software. According to the questionnaire, demographic information including age, gender, accident location, time, method of suicide, as well as mission outcome were extracted. To examine the results, frequency percentage, Mean±SD were used, and to examine the qualitative variables, the Chi-square test, and Fisher’s exact test were used. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software, version 26 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). A significance level of 0.05 was considered. 

In this study, 712(53.7%) were men and 615(46.3%) were women. The mean age of patients was 32.12±2.03 years. Fisher›s exact test revealed a statistically significant relationship between age groups and suicide methods (P=0.02). The Chi-square test was used to investigate the relationship between the suicide method and gender. According to the results of this test, a statistically significant relationship was observed between gender and suicide methods (P=0.00). The most common methods of suicide among clients were drug poisoning (32.1%), other cases (30.06%), and self-harm (20.6%), respectively. The highest frequency of suicide attempts occurred between evening and night among 497 people (37.5%) in terms of accident time.

Young and productive age groups are among the most vulnerable groups among suicides. Men died about five times more than women after committing suicide in a pre-hospital emergency room. According to the results, more planning is required regarding mental health self-care education in families and schools, implementation of psychological counseling, diagnosis, and prompt treatment in vulnerable groups.

More than 90% of goods movement in Iran is done by road transport. A significant part of these materials is dangerous goods. Considering that chlorine gas is considered a toxic and oxidizing substance, predicting the way of release and mortality due to accidental leakage of chlorine gas can be a crucial tool in adopting preventive strategies. This study aims to evaluate the safety of chlorine gas transportation and analyze the consequences of its release.

This cross-sectional-analytical study was conducted in 2020 in Tehran. The transportation risk rating index was used to measure and evaluate the quantitative risk of transportation of hazardous materials. PHAST software was used to determine the consequence of possible accident scenarios on the transportation route. In the final stage, according to the amount of traffic, the time and manner of response to emergencies by the fire and emergency organization were simulated using Pathfinder software.

In this evaluation, the chlorine risk rating was calculated as 192. The worst possible scenario was a catastrophic rupture of chlorine in the second half of 2021. As a result of the accident, up to a radius of 1800 m from the center of the leak, the dangerous concentration is equal to 20 ppm, that is, equal to the ERPG3 limit. The simulation results showed that the release of poisonous chlorine gas leads to the death of 10% of people up to a radius of 192 m around the scenario.

In the scenario of the sudden release of chlorine, in which people need to escape and move away from the accident site, it was found that it takes more than 24 minutes to leave the ERPG-3 area. Considering that the assumed average speed of 1.15 m/s is the average speed of people and naturally the speed of sensitive people is much lower in the conditions of an accident, it can be concluded that in the scenario of a sudden leak, a significant part of the people involved in the accident may suffer severe and irreparable damage.

Critical risks are one of the most important problems in industries, which have high costs for the industry. This study aimed to assess critical safety and health risks through job safety analysis and analytic hierarchy process in industrial printing.

The present study was conducted as a descriptive and analytical in one of the printing industries in Iran, in 2020. Critical risks were collected by visiting and observing the job safety analysis checklist. Then, critical risk prioritization was performed by an analytic hierarchy process using Expert Choice software, version 11.

A total of 23 hazards were identified. Mechanical hazards (61%) and chemical hazards (9%) had the highest and lowest frequencies, respectively. The identified safety and health hazards included musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in the upper and lower back, respiratory and skin exposure to chemicals, the risk of electric shock, and mechanical hazards (hand entrapment, hand amputation, and falling objects).

The highest priority of critical risk was related to MSDs of the upper and lower back. The next priority of critical risk was related to chemical agents, respiratory exposure to organic solvents, and dermal exposure to organic solvents.

A disaster, as a serious disruption in the functioning of society, may cause extensive damage. Following a disaster, the demand for healthcare increases, and people rush to healthcare centers. In such situations, health staff and medical services play an important role. As a result, people’s knowledge, attitude, and practice toward disaster preparedness in the workplace play an important role in accident prevention.

This cross-sectional analytical descriptive study was conducted to evaluate the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of hospital staff to prepare for disasters in 2020. A total number of 350 hospital staff working at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences were selected using the cluster sampling method. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect the data and SPSS software, version 21 was used to analyze the data.

The mean scores for knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding disaster preparedness were 9.44±1.53, 39.26±4.8, and 7.26±3.66, respectively. In addition, 74.5%, 89.5%, and 29.2% of participants showed good knowledge, attitude, and practice, respectively. There was a significant relationship between knowledge and attitude (r=254, P<0.001), knowledge and practice (r=205, P<0.001), and attitude and practice (r=161, P=0.004). 

Results revealed a good level of knowledge and attitude and a moderate level of practice in hospital staff in terms of disaster preparedness. It seems necessary to hold both theoretical and practical training programs as well as operational maneuvers with an emphasis on repetition in appropriate intervals.

COVID-19 has had many negative consequences in all aspects of human life, especially physical and mental health. This study aims to determine the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in people with a history of hospitalization with COVID-19 and its relationship with socio-economic status (SES).

The present study was a cross-sectional descriptive study and the statistical population of the study included all people with a history of being infected with COVID-19 and subsequent hospitalization in Shohada Hospital of Sarpol-e Zahab, Kermanshah Province, Iran. The sample members were randomly selected from the list of hospitalized patients. A total of 479 people were evaluated face to face using the PTSD Checklist Scale (PCL-S) questionnaire to examine PTSD, as well as the Ghodrat Nama et al.’s SES questionnaire to determine the SES. The data were analyzed using SPSS software, version 21 and by Chi-square test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient (P≤0.05).

The prevalence of PTSD was 31.10%. No significant relationship was observed between socioeconomic status and the prevalence of PTSD (P=0.97). Among the demographic variables, only gender had a significant relationship with the prevalence of this disorder (P=0.00) and the prevalence was higher in women than in men.

The prevalence of PTSD is high in people with a history of hospitalization with COVID-19. Getting infected with COVID-19 and subsequent hospitalization hurts people’s mental health. Maintaining the mental health of this group of people should be considered.

Maintaining the performance of healthcare centers during an earthquake is essential. Evaluating the seismic vulnerability of these centers is a priority. This study aims to evaluate seismic vulnerability using geographic information systems (GIS) in urban and rural health service centers of Hamadan Province, Iran, in 2021.

This is a descriptive, analytical cross-sectional study that was conducted in comprehensive health centers. The data of this study were collected in the form of a questionnaire and a map and analyzed using the hierarchical analysis model. In the study, 10 criteria, such as the type of materials, the age of the building, the quality of the building, the number of floors, the area of ​​the centers, as well as the distance from the existing fault lines, and the proximity to the hazardous centers, are defined using a valuation questionnaire, using the chain analysis method, weighting and prioritizing, and using GIS, vulnerability maps of comprehensive urban and rural health centers of Hamadan province were obtained.

Among the indices, the distance from the fault index with a weight of 0.328 has the highest and the area distance with a weight of 0.17 has the lowest final weight. The vulnerability distribution of the centers included 46.99% very low vulnerability, 7.23% low vulnerability, 5.42% moderate vulnerability, 20.48% high vulnerability, and 19.88% very high vulnerability.

Considering that many urban and rural health service centers are vulnerable to seismic hazards, it is necessary to strengthen vulnerable centers against earthquakes.