Iranian Journal of

Background and Objectives: Not paying attention to management and control of medical wastes in different stages of production, keeping, gathering, transporting and finally eliminating them all have been creating various setbacks such that the environment and human's health are in danger with the relevant consequences. This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed in Vali-e Asr, Amir Kabir, Taleghani, Amir Al-Momenin and Imam Khomeini hospitals of Arak city in 2009. In this research the current condition of gathering, maintaining, transportation and final elimination of hospital wastes of Arak city was investigated .Eventually an appropriate model was introduced.
Material and Methods: Solid wastes were separated, weighed and registered in two sequential intervals. In order to get acquaintance with the management procedure of medical solid wastes in the hospitals studied, a questionnaire approved byW.H.O was used. The questions were then replied by the Managers and Hygiene Experts worked at hospitals and their responses were recorded.
Results: The investigations conducted in 5 hospitals reveal that the average per annual was2.9 Kg in 24 hours per active bed and 4.6 Kg for each patient. This volume consists of 60% for semi-home solid wastes, 39% for infectious solid wastes, 0.34% for sharp wastes, 0.28% for the pathologic and 0.38% for medicinal and chemical solid wastes.
Conclusion: According to the results obtained in this study, in order to reduce pollution create in the hospitals, action should be taken to deal with pollutants at their source of generation. The staff members involved in waste collection and transportation should practice all the personal protection measures.finaly it also should be considered that,success in medical waste management wouldn't be achievable unless all groups of medical staff involved cooperate and participle.

Background & Objectives: Human environment is surrounded bychemicals that could directly or indirectly endanger human health. Some statistics of WHO is indicative of the fact that four million people are employed in the chemical industry throughout the world and one million people die or become disabled annually due to contact with chemicals. Moreover, 1-4 Millions chemical toxicity occur annually. The purpose of this study was to understand the risks involved in chemicals in the workplace, to assess the task risk, and to propose appropriate control measures in order to eliminate or reduce risk in the petrochemical industry. Materials & Methods: In this study, the chemicals were identified in Arak Petrochemical and features that are indicative of hazardous materials were identified and using TOPSIS, The hazard rate were determined. Then the job duties of employees and employee exposure rate with chemicals were calculated and finally, a risk rate for exposure to chemicals in job duties was determined. Results: It was found that chemicals do not have too high risk to employees however, but the high risky chemicals were five chemicals including naphtha, ammonia, acetic acid, chlorine, and methanol for operational staff and two chemicals, i.e. ammonia and chlorine for operation and maintenance staffs . Conclusion: It is better to have an alternative for the materials that their risk rang is high and very high, and their production is suggested to be avoided.

Background and Objectives: Arsenic contamination is of great environmental concern due to its toxic effects as a carcinogen. In order to assess soil arsenic contamination and its distribution patterns, surface soil samples collected from the urban areas of Arak were analyzed. Materials and Methods: Totally, 62 surface soil samples were collected from depth of 0–20 cm of different locations including parks, green spaces, agricultural, roadsides, and squares of Arak City. The spatial distribution of arsenic in soil was mapped using GIS and kriging method. Results: The concentration of arsenic in the surface soil of Arak City was between 2.2- 10.8 mg/kg (average: 5.78 mg/kg). Spatial analysis showed that arsenic contamination enhances in the city center and there was an increasing trend from south to north. In addition, the mean arsenic concentration in the urban topsoil samples from Arak was lower compared with mean concentration for other cities around the world. Conclusion: It seems that arsenic in soil is controlled by natural and anthropogenic factors. The highest concentrations of arsenic in center and the north areas reflected arsenic loading is originated from anthropogenic sources such as vehicles and industrial processes.