فهرست مطالب shahnaz bakand

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are one of the most important jobs in exposure to Needle Stick (NS) and, therefore, are in risk of infection to diseases such as Hepatitis B (HB) and AIDS. The aim of this study was to identify and assess risk of injuries caused by needle and sharps in healthcare personnel of a hospital in Tehran. In this study, hazard analysis method of Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (HFMEA) was selected. After several meetings with related experts, by the help of a provided checklist, hazardous processes related to NS injuries were identified and finally assessed by HFMEA method. Potential causes of injuries included recapping, sudden shake of patient organs, lack of personnel, and slip. For most of the causes there were no control measures. Sudden shake of patient's arm and heavy workload were recognized as high risk scores due to unskilled injector. Also for 53% of the studied cases, a score risk of more than 8 was recorded. As the results show, a major portion of potential causes of injuries had a high risk score, that is due to lack of a clear safety program or system to control the risk. Thus hospital manager should consider and control the causes according to the recommendations from risk assessment team. Totally HFMEA is an appropriate technique to analyze hazards related to NS injuries and predict effective measures to reduce related risks.

Many systems and processes can cause the introduction of radioactivity into the environment. Human activities in nuclear industry such as nuclear fuel cycle and reactor operation, lead to a significant production and release of radioactivity to the environment. Understanding the physical and chemical nature, including size, chemical composition and radioactivity of aerosol particles in the safety chamber of Tehran research reactor is indispensable for evaluation of exposure level and methods of prevention. The aim of this study was to measure the size distribution of aerosols and their activities, which was determined using an Anderson cascade Impactor (ACI) ACFM model and liquid scintillation respectively. The measurements were performed in three workstations in the safety chamber of Tehran research reactor.

The identification of existing radio nuclides on suspended particles were carried out in the safety chamber by means of environmental sampler and mass size distribution of particles was measured using an Anderson cascade Impactor (ACI). To determine the type and amount of radio nuclides in the aerosol particles the γ-ray spectrometry with a high –purity germanium (HPGe) detector and ultra-low level liquid scintillation spectrometer were used respectively.

The results showed that the activities median aerodynamic diameter (AMAD) value for three selected workstations were 2.4, 3.1 and 3µm with geometric standard deviation of 2.3, 2.12 and 2 respectively. Furthermore, the results of particle activity size distribution showed that the most fraction of activity was related to nucleation and accumulation mode, especially particles with the aerodynamic diameter less than 0.4µm.

The most activity was related to the number of particles in the accumulation and nucleation mode (fine particles). The origin of these particles can be the coagulation of particles in the nucleation mode. The accumulation mode also contains droplets formed by the chemical conversion of gases to vapors that condense.

Exposure to air pollutants is significantly associated with health risks ranging from bronchial reactivity to morbidity and mortality. However, the precise mechanisms are not always fully understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of sulphur dioxide (SO2) on cell viability and cytokine production of A549-human pulmonary epithelial cells. Test atmospheres of SO2 were generated using a direct dilution method and calibrated by ion-chromatography. Test atmospheres were delivered to lung cells cultured on porous membranes (0.4 µm) using Harvard Navicyte horizontal diffusion chamber systems. The cytotoxic endpoints were investigated using the MTS (tetrazolium salt; Promega), NRU (neutral red uptake; Sigma) and ATP (adenosine triphosphate; Promega) assays. Expression of inflammatory markers including tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were evaluated using double-antibody immunometric assays. Dose-dependent effects of SO2 were observed in A549 cells using all in vitro assays at test concentrations (10-200 ppm). The ATP assay appeared to be the most sensitive test (IC50 = 48 ± 2.83 ppm) that may related to the impaired metabolic activity of the cells following SO2 exposure. After analysis of TNF-a, no statistically significant differences were observed between control and exposed cells. However, the IL-6 production in A549 cells was significantly reduced in a dose-dependent manner (P<0.05). These results suggest that SO2 may induce a functional alteration of cells of the pulmonary epithelial preventing cells to produce adequate amounts of IL-6. IL-6 as a multifunctional proinflammatory cytokine may regulate cellular responses and plays a significant role in inflammation and tissue injury.

Tools for evaluation of code discomfort are tools that can be used for the prevention of musculoskeletal discomfort in industrial settings. Musculoskeletal disorders are serious health cancern in the developed world. The Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (CMDQ) that are designed to evaluate the musculoskeletal disorders by the time being, are translate in diverse languages and being implemented in many coun tries. However, CMDQ is not translated into Persian language in Iran. The aim of this study was to translate, accridate and validated the CMDQ in Persian version in order to implementation of this tool in Iran and to establish the standard tool for ergonomic research.

This analytical study was performed to determine the validity and reliability of translated Persian version of the CMDQ for implementation in steel industrial settings. In order to implement this tool for Iranian workers, the Farsi version of the CMDQ was prepared using the Forward-Backward translation method. Then the translated version of the questionnaire was distribute between 100 of workers in Kashan city of steel industries in a randomized manner. In order to determine the validity for the severity of discomfort, the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was completed by all workers. The reliability of the questionnaire was determined using Cronbach’s alpha Coefficient.

In order to analysis the validity of the questionnaire for the severity of the pain and discomfort the Kappa coefficient was implemented and for the frequency of pain and discomfort the Spearman correlation coefficient was used. However, in order to analysis the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach’s alpha Coefficient 0.986 were determined. The Cronbach’s alpha Coefficient for all three sections of frequency of discomfort, severity of discomfort and interference scales were determined 0.955, 0.961, 0.969 respectively.

The Farsi version of the CMDQ is the appropriate tool for investigation of the level of musculoskeletal disorders in Iranian workers that can be used as a part of ergonomic research and Health surveillance programs in order to prevent the musculoskeletal disorders.

Exposure to occupational and environmental contaminants is a major contributor to human health problems. Despite significant achievements in the risk assessment of chemicals, the toxicological database, particularly for industrial chemicals, remains limited. Considering there are approximately 80, 000 chemicals in commerce, and an extremely large number of chemical mixtures, in vivo testing of this large number is unachievable from ethical, economical and scientific perspectives. Therefore, increasing the number of available industrial chemicals and new products has created a demand for alternatives to animal methods for better safety evaluation. Recent toxicity studies have demonstrated that in vitro methods are capable of rapidly providing toxicity information. In this review, current toxicity test methods for risk evaluation of industrial chemical contaminants are presented. To evaluate the potential applications of more recent test methods developed for toxicity testing of chemical contaminants are discussed. Although to be considered more broadly for risk assessment of human chemical exposures. In vitro methods,in vitro toxicology methods cannot exactly mimic the biodynamics of the whole body, in vitro relationships (QSARs) and physiologically based toxicokinetic (PBTK) models have a potentialtest systems in combination with the knowledge of quantitative structure activity.