Iranian Journal of

Background and Objectives: Conducted studies about arsenic have shown that consumption of water contaminated with arsenic can causes different adverse health effects in consumers. World Health Organization (WHO) has enacted 10µg/L arsenic in drinking water as a guideline value. Regarding some reports about arsenic presence in a village of Hashtrood county and related health effects and also considering this fact that determination of arsenic as a poisoning chemical is not included in routine monitoring of water by responsible organizations, in present study all of drinking water sources in Hashtrood county in East Azerbaijan province were studied for arsenic presence.
Materials and Methods: Water supply and its sanitation situation were studied in all of cities and residential villages (200 villages) by field visiting. Arsenic content of water samples were determined using Ez arsenic test kit, a product of Hach Company. For assurance of the kit results, 20 water samples with different concentration of arsenic were analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) method and then achieved results was compared together.
Results: Arsenic was present in drinking water of 50 villages that in 9 villages its level was higher than Iranian standard (50µg/L). During the study totally 11087 persons (21.96% of rural areas population) in Hashtrood county were exposed to different levels of arsenic via drinking water. Correlation between kit and ICP results was significant (R² = 0.9715)
Conclusion: Studied region in present study is a polluted area to arsenic by geogenic sources. It is necessary to replace water source of villages with higher level than national standard with safe drinking water. Annually measurement of arsenic in drinking water of all villages spatially polluted villages should be considered by responsible organization e.g. Health Network and Rural Water and Wastewater Company. Used kit in our study is recommendable for this purpose.

Background and Objectives: In the production of some high-consumed food products like cake, biscuit, chocolate and spaghetti water is used in the preparing of primary material and in the kneading processes. At the present study microbiological and chemical quality of consumed water in food industries of East Azerbaijan Province were studied.
Materials and Methods: Eleven factories with different products were selected. Water samples were collected and analyzed regarding the microbiological contamination and chemical parameters, and heavy metals. In addition, condition of water quality in selected industry was surveyed during the summer.
Results: According to the results, monitoring of water quality in the studied industries is not suitable. The chemical characteristics of consumed water in those industries had major differences. Ni, Cr, Zn, Fe and Mn were present in all analyzed water but in lower concentration than national Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL). Pb was measured in higher concentration than MCL in spaghetti factory no. 2 and close to MCL in wiener and frankfurter and sugar industries. Cd was close to MCL in spaghetti factory no. 2 and wiener and frankfurter industries.
Conclusion: It was concluded that for the safety and health of food products the food industries should use the public water supply system as water source at least in food processing units or in the units of preparing of primary materials. Also for the preventing of chemical pollution of food products it is necessary, pay more attention to the subject of water quality control according to the special water standard of food industries, and using less volume of water in some food industry isn.t acceptable reason for neglecting of water quality monitoring and assessing. In addition it is required to analyze heavy metals in the final products of those industries.

Background and Objectives: Fresh leachate has a low pH and high amounts of BOD and COD which are mainly constituents with low weight molecular such as volatile fatty acids ( acetic and propionic acids) .Management and treatment of leachate is an important subject in sanitary landfill operation and performance.Th objective of this study is determining the efficiency of the integrated coagulation -flocculation and ozonation processes in fresh leachate treatment of Tabriz city.
Materials and Methods: Quantitive parameters of pH, BOD5, COD , alkalinity and TSS were studied based on standard methods.The study emphasizes of COD and TSS leachate removal.Alum , ferric chloride and PAC had been used as coagulants.
Results : Results indicated the superiority of Ferric chloride at the dosage of 1 g/l in pH 10 ,whichreduced 34% of COD and 54% of TSS.in the stage of ozonation the leachate sample coagulated by ferric chloride was treated by 3 g/h ozone gas at optimum pH and after 39 hours ozonation about 51% of COD and 18.2 % of TSS were reduced.
Conclusion: This study clearly indicates that there would be need to apply biological treatment (after coagulation - flocculation ) and ozonation , various advanced oxidation processes and / or other treatment methods for further reduction of COD in leachate and meeting discharge standards.

Background & Objectives: Determining the impacts of air pollution in cities is facing two major challenges first, the limited data on the health effects of pollutants, and secondly, the lack of information on exposure to air pollutants and their concentration. This is an applied-observational carried out to determine the concentration, seasonal changes, and to estimate the health impacts attributed to the particulate matters in Tabriz during September 2012 to July 2013. Materials and Methods: The particulate matters were sampled using high volume sampler and were analyzed using portable HAZ-DUST EPAM-5000. The health impacts of particulate matterswere estimated using AirQ software developed by W.H.O. Results: The annual mean concentration of TSP, PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and PM₁ in the urban sampling site were 139, 83, 38, and 27 µg/m³ respectively. In addition, these concentrations were 178, 110, 40, and 27µg/m³ in industrial area. The average of PM₁₀/TSP, PM_2.5/PM₁₀, PM₁/PM₁₀, and PM₁/PM_2.5 ratio level was 0.6, 0.48, 0.33, and 0.7 in the urban areas and 0.61, 0.37, 0.28, and 0.77 in the industrial areas respectively. The total mortalities associated with the TSP, PM₁₀, and PM_2.5 concentrations were estimated as 327, 363, and 360 respectively. Nevertheless, the calculated cardiovascular mortality for TSP and PM₁₀ were estimated to be 202 and 227 respectively. Conclusion: This research found that the concentrations of PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 were 73 and 69% more than National Standard and 8 and 5% more than USEPA Standards respectively. In Tabriz, especially industrial area, the soils of surrounding ground and re-suspension of particles fromcontaminated soils have a significant contribution to particulate emissions.