Iranian Journal of

Background and Objective: Application of sewage sludge contaminated with heavy metals may cause health and ecological concern. Ecological risk and heavy metals content of sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants of East Azerbaijan province were evaluated in the present study.
Materials and Methods: Nine composite samples were taken and analyzed for heavy metals. The geo-accumulation index (Igeo), contamination factor(CF) , and potential ecological risk index were calculated.
Results: Variation of the heavy metals concentrations were in the following order: Zn>Cu>Pb>Cr>Ni>As>Hg>Cd. The contents of some heavy metals were several order of magnitude higher than the crustal average (CA) values. Considering the Maximum Permissible Standards (MPS) and the Muller's index, the Cd, Cu, and Zn pollution were found to be in the moderate range, whereas As and Pb were in strongly polluted category; and Hg was in extremely polluted category. Considering MPS, the single-factor pollution index (PI) and the Nemerow’s synthetic pollution index (PN) were lower than 1 and 0.7 respectively. This indicated that the sludges were unpolluted with most heavy metals and could be safely applied for agricultural uses. However, a high potential ecological risk for As and Cd; very high risk for Pb; and extremely high risk for Hg were calculated when considering the CA values. There were significant differences between the levels of heavy metals and MPS (p <0.05).
Conclusion: Although the metal concentrations were below the MPS according to the US EPA regulations, sludge samples showed a high degree of potential ecological risk for the environment in comparision with the CA values,. Periodic monitoring of sludge quality are strongly recommended.  

Background and Objective: By accurately identifying environmental issues, individuals can acquire skills to better solve environmental problems. To this end, the most appropriate method is to assess the educational needs of individuals to pave the way for the promotion of environmental knowledge. The present study aims to assess the need for training courses to empower professionals to increase their knowledge of environmental issues and educate others to take an important step in improving environmental health in society.
Materials and Methods: The present study was a descriptive needs assessment study using Delphi technique. In the first stage, the designed questionnaire was given to 150 people (faculty members, experts and students) to express their opinions in the proposed areas. In the second stage, a supplementary questionnaire entitled General needs for faculty members, specialized needs for experts and general and specialized needs for students were provided to individuals and the importance of the issues from their point of view was examined. Finally, the most important issues were prioritized by experts. Data analysis was performed using SPSS-26 software.
Results: The total number of educational needs extracted from the first stage of Delphi was 120 items, of which 31 items related to general needs (11 teaching and evaluation areas, 10 research areas and 10 communication and personal development items) and 89 items related to specialized needs. (27 cases of air pollution, 23 cases of waste management, 17 cases of wastewater treatment and reuse of wastewater, 10 cases of water treatment and pollution and 12 cases of soil pollution and its removal methods). In the second and third rounds, the importance of these items was determined by the target groups by scoring, and at the end, the first five priorities of each item were identified.
Conclusion: The results of this study, considering the comprehensive review of three target groups and determining and prioritizing the needs for each group, can increase the level of environmental awareness and empowerment of experts, which ultimately enhance the efficiency of the system and is an important step for environmental educational planning.