Journal of Earth, Environment and Health Sciences最新文献

{"title":"Dispersion Modeling of Total Suspended Particles (TSP) Emitted from a Steel Plant at Different Time Scales Using AERMOD View","authors":"Mehrshad Bajoghli, M. F. Abari, H. Radnezhad","doi":"10.4103/2423-7752.191399","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4103/2423-7752.191399","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: One of the main challenges of this modern life is air pollution and industry is the major producer of pollutions in the environment. In this regard, air quality monitoring and assessing exceedance of air quality standards around an area or industrial plant can be a useful method in order to control and establish limits for pollutant sources. Air dispersion models could be the simplest and the most effective way for monitoring and evaluating the pollutant concentrations as well as the impact of each source on the air quality of a given area, and also can be applied for adopting management approaches and appropriate strategies to prevent and reduce air pollution. Aim: In this study, by applying AERMOD developed by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and recommended as one of the preferred and advanced models, dispersion of total suspended particles (TSP) emitted from electric arc furnace chimney of a steel plant in Isfahan was simulated. Materials and Methods: In this study, AERMOD View is run within an area with 30 km × 30 km extent (regional scale) and 2000 m network distance (961 grid points) for 1, 3, 8, 12, 24-h time averages and monthly and annual periods, and then maximum ground level concentrations (GLC) compared with EPA and Iran clean air standards to assess the exceedance of this pollutant. Results: Results revealed that simulated concentrations for 24-h average and annual period are far below the threshold limits of both standards. Moreover, the highest concentrations of TSP took place in a different direction with prevailing winds where there are no inhabitants. However, the cumulative impact of such activities must be considered. This study also highlights the effectiveness of bag filter systems in reducing particle matter emissions from industrial units.","PeriodicalId":15578,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Earth, Environment and Health Sciences","volume":"24 9","pages":"77 - 82"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91433568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Targeting Global Elimination of Soil-transmitted Helminth Infections among Children by 2020","authors":"S. Shrivastava, P. Shrivastava, J. Ramasamy","doi":"10.4103/2423-7752.191404","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4103/2423-7752.191404","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":15578,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Earth, Environment and Health Sciences","volume":"30 1","pages":"83 - 84"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78919635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Geochemical Background of Some Potentially Toxic and Essential Trace Elements in Soils at the Nadowli District of the Upper West Region of Ghana","authors":"E. Arhin, Saeed M. Zango, B. S. Berdie","doi":"10.4103/2423-7752.191402","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4103/2423-7752.191402","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: Use of universal baseline values, such as continental crustal averages, to assess health issues from trace elements in environmental soils may be fraught with challenges because the method only considers unmineralized rocks and soils in the determination of average crustal abundances or background values. Legislated guideline values are also for specific geographic locations in the environments. None of these take into account the human activities at a particular local community as the environmental conditions have dire influence on trace element mobility, concentrations, and storage in the surface soils. Aim: The aim of this article therefore is to evaluate site-specific geochemical background concentrations of some potentially toxic trace elements in the artisanal mine area and farmland soils of Nadowli District. Materials and Methods: The method involved collection of 29 samples of trace element from soils up to the depth of 20 cm. These samples were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analytical technique. Results: The results of the trace element concentrations were statistically and graphically analyzed to isolate sets of background values that are better suited locally to identify and assess areas contaminated and depleted by trace elements. Local background values of 15.00 ppm was estimated for arsenic (As), 0.02 ppm for cadmium (Cd), 0.01 ppm for mercury (Hg), 35.0 ppm for zinc (Zn), 20.0 ppm for copper (Cu), and 0.40 ppm for selenium (Se). The study found that estimated local backgrounds for essential elements were in the range of the legislated guideline values and should be used to assess the environmental quality and health as well as develop environmental policies for environmental monitoring. The potentially toxic elements contrastingly have higher local background values for As and Cd and lower local background for Hg when compared with the legislated soil guideline values. Conclusion: In conclusion, for cleanup goals in environmental legislation and for the assessment of the impacts of trace elements on health in Nadowli District, these background values should be used.","PeriodicalId":15578,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Earth, Environment and Health Sciences","volume":"418 1","pages":"56 - 65"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85467484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Toxicological Effects of Heavy Metal Cadmium on Two Aquatic Species: Rutilus rutilus and Hypophthalmichthys molitrix","authors":"A. Hedayati","doi":"10.4103/2423-7752.191403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4103/2423-7752.191403","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: Cadmium (Cd) is toxic to fish at low doses and never beneficial to an organism. As Caspian roach (Rutilus rutilus) and silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) are two key fish species, the aim of this study was to gather data on different sensitivities of few inland fish to Cd to use them in the ecotoxicity experiment studies. Subject and Methods: All samples were exposed to the different doses of cadmium chloride (0, 0.2, 1, 2, 6, 10, and 15 ppm). Mortality was recorded after 24, 48, 72, and 96 h and the median lethal concentration (LC50) amount and its confidence limits (95%) were measured by Finney’s method of probit analysis. Results: Toxicity experimenting statistical endpoints indicated that lowest observed effect concentration in roach was higher than silver carp (2 and 1 ppm, respectively), which means that no observed effect concentration was also higher for roach than silver carp (6 and 2 ppm, respectively), and LC50 was also different between species (5.26 and 6.58 ppm for roach and silver carp, respectively). Conclusion: Our results showed that Cd is toxic for these fish, especially roach; therefore, we suggest using this fish species for toxicity experiment of heavy metals as a suitable indicator of toxicological studies.","PeriodicalId":15578,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Earth, Environment and Health Sciences","volume":"27 1","pages":"66 - 69"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90561972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Uranium Removal from Its Liquid Waste Using Chemically Treated Rice Husk","authors":"A. Morsy, H. Kamal, Naglaa M Walley, M. Rageh, Mohamed M Badewy","doi":"10.4103/2423-7752.191401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4103/2423-7752.191401","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: In this study, rice husk (RH) was modified by HCl and HNO3, and the activated RHs were used as adsorbents for removal of UO22+ ions from aqueous solutions through batch equilibrium technique. Materials and methods: The influence of pH, equilibrium time, temperature, adsorbent dosage, and initial uranium concentration on adsorption percent was investigated. Results: Obtained results declared that the pH of aqueous solutions had affected UO22+ ions removal, which was indicated by the increased removal efficiency with increasing solution pH till pH 3. Conclusion: Experimental data were verified with Langmuir and other isotherms and were found to be well fitting with Langmuir isotherm models. A feasibility study for the whole process was performed.","PeriodicalId":15578,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Earth, Environment and Health Sciences","volume":"73 1","pages":"41 - 49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76465957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"New Approaches for the Effective Utilization of Fish Skin Wastes of Aluterus monoceros","authors":"R. Senthil, S. Vedakumari, T. Hemalatha, V. Sumathi, N. Gobi, T. Sastry","doi":"10.4103/2423-7752.191400","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4103/2423-7752.191400","url":null,"abstract":"Context: Unicorn leatherjacket (Aluterus monoceros) is an export quality fish mainly used for fillet production, the skin of which is discarded as waste due to its toughness. Wastes emanated from the fish processing industry have become an important source of environmental pollution. Aim: The study investigates the potentials of A. monoceros skin to produce value-added products viz., fish leather and fish meal. Materials and Methods: 5 kg of fish skin from 20 kg of fish was used for the present study. Leather produced from fish skin was characterized for its physico-chemical properties using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), etc. Biochemical components viz., protein, fat, and salt content of the fish skin were also estimated. Results: Leather produced from fish skin possessed 88 MPa tensile strength. Biochemical estimations proved that the fish skin had 28% protein content. Conclusion: On the basis of the characterization and evaluation results, it could be concluded that this processed fish skin could be used for leather goods production. In addition, this fish skin could be included as a component in fish meal preparation.","PeriodicalId":15578,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Earth, Environment and Health Sciences","volume":"18 1","pages":"50 - 55"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77153930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of Family Physician Program Implementation on Maternal and Child Health Indicators in Rural Population of Isfahan Province","authors":"E. Forouzandeh, H. Asgari, Mohsen Rohani, M. Khosravi, Rasol Hemamy, Maryam Kheirmand","doi":"10.4103/2423-7752.181799","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4103/2423-7752.181799","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: Family physician program as the greatest reforms of Iran′s health system was initiated since 2008. The most important goals of this program were improvement in primary health services delivery. In this study, the Impact of family physician program implementation on the trend of changes in some of the maternal and newborn health indicators in a rural population of Isfahan province from 2001 to 2010 were investigated. Subject and Methods: This research was a retrospective study. The data were extracted from statistical and official documents. Indicators mean after and before family physician program implementation were compared using descriptive analysis and paired samples t-test. Results: The results of this study indicated that there were a significant difference between neonatal mortality rate, infant mortality rate and under-five mortality rate before and after of family physician program implementation. And performing this program has been the effective impact on improving mentioned indicators. The indicators of mothers mortality rate and low births weight rate were not indicated significant difference before and after of family physician program implementation. Conclusion: Considering trend of changes in studied indicators it can be said that family physician program implementation has been the effective impact on improving all of mother and child indicators except low births weight rate.","PeriodicalId":15578,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Earth, Environment and Health Sciences","volume":"12 1","pages":"5 - 9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82852507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigating the Environmental Skill, Attitude, and Knowledge of Bojnourd Islamic Azad University Students","authors":"M. Omran, Marzieh Ostadi Iraj, M. Yarmohammadian","doi":"10.4103/2423-7752.181804","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4103/2423-7752.181804","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: The main causes of increased environmental crisis are miseducation and lack of environmental education. Objective: The purpose of this research is investigating environmental skill, attitude, and knowledge of Bojnourd Islamic Azad University students during the academic year 2013-2014. Materials and Methods: It research method is descriptive-survey. Number of studying students has been 5570; through Cochran formula estimated sample size has calculated to 359 who have been chosen by random-stratified method. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that to collect data measuring Environmental behavior standard questionnaire of Omran and Mohamadi (2008) has been used which its Cronbach alpha has been calculated 0.732; it indicate that the questionnaire has reliability. The validity of this questionnaire has been previously approved and implemented to analysis data SPSS 21 software has been used after collecting questionnaires. After investigating data normality through Kolmogorov-Smirnov and confirming used scale, hypotheses have been analyzed by one-sample t-test. Then relations statuses between dimensions and research variables according to respondents view have been analyzed. Results: Results have indicated that significance level of knowledge, attitude, and skill variables among Bojnord Islamic Azad University students is more than average and < 5%; with 95% confidence it can be claimed that all hypotheses have been approved (standard value). Conclusions: The environmental skill, attitude, and knowledge are desirable in Bojnourd Islamic Azad University students.","PeriodicalId":15578,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Earth, Environment and Health Sciences","volume":"1 1","pages":"28 - 33"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91134125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigation of Cadmium and Arsenic Accumulation in Portunus pelagicus along the Asalouyeh Coast, Iran","authors":"F. Fatemi, Shahrzad Khoramnejadian","doi":"10.4103/2423-7752.181805","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4103/2423-7752.181805","url":null,"abstract":"Context: Accumulation of toxic metals in aquatic organisms is one of the most important problems facing the world today since these metals can enter the food chain and have a damaging impact on human health. Aims: This research determines the concentration of metals (cadmium [Cd], arsenic [As]) in the soft tissue of blue swimmer crab (Portunus pelagicus) from four different stations along the Asalouyeh coasts in Iran. Settings and Design: The West suburb of the Mond protected area in Bushehr Province was chosen as a control area. Samples were collected over a 3-month period during winter of 2014. Materials and Methods: Metal analysis was performed by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Surface water at each sampling station was measured for selected physicochemical parameters with a multiparameter meter. Statistical Analysis Used: Analysis of variance followed by Duncan test (α = 0.05) was applied to determine the differences between the groups. Results: The results showed that the mean concentration (mg/kg dry weight) of Cd in the crab was higher than As. The concentration of both metals was higher in March. The highest concentration of Cd (1.54 ± 0.07) and As (0.35 ± 0.01) in the samples was observed for station 1 which was near to industrial zone of Asalouyeh. The mean concentrations of both metals were significantly (P = 0.000) higher in the study area than in the control area. Conclusions: Results showed that P. pelagicus is a reliable biological indicator of Cd and As contamination. The concentration of Cd in the crab samples was higher than recommended levels. Therefore, it is not suitable for consumption.","PeriodicalId":15578,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Earth, Environment and Health Sciences","volume":"54 1","pages":"34 - 38"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87207058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Application of Palm Kernel Shell Activated Carbon for the Removal of Pollutant and Color in Palm Oil Mill Effluent Treatment","authors":"N. Jalani, A. Aziz, N. Wahab, W. Hassan, N. Zainal","doi":"10.4103/2423-7752.181802","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4103/2423-7752.181802","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: Application of palm kernel shell activated carbon (PKSAC) in reducing the pollutant in palm oil mill effluent (POME) was studied as the alternative treatment system. Aim: The objective of this study was to determine the optimum PKSAC dosage and treatment time for its capability to treat the effluent. Methods: The study was carried out in batch and continuous systems. For batch system, activated carbon dosage ranging from 1% to 15% (w/v) was added into 200 mL of POME and agitated at 160 rpm for 24-120 h treatment time. As for continuous system, POME samples were fed into 2000 mL fixed-bed glass column and run continuously for 8 h/cycle. Results: For the batch study, results showed that the PKSAC works with maximum removal of pollutant at very high dosage up to 15% (w/v) in 72 h treatment time. Meanwhile, for fixed-bed treatment, POME was fed to the column with flow rate of 15 mL/min. The initial chemical oxygen demand (COD) and color of samples were in the range of 450-910 mg/L and 3500-6500 Pt/Co, respectively, and after the treatment, the maximum COD and color removal were 75% and 76%, respectively. The PKSAC became saturated after 8 treatment cycle. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the palm-based activated carbon was able to remove the organic pollutant and color of POME in both batch and continuous adsorption treatments. Being the raw material available in the palm oil mill, the PKS can be converted into activated carbon and used as sustainable practice to treat POME.","PeriodicalId":15578,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Earth, Environment and Health Sciences","volume":"94 1 1","pages":"15 - 20"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83501632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}