Iranian Journal of

Background and Objectives: Heavy Metals in Water resources is one of the most important environmental problems of countries. Up to now various methods of removing of these metals is considered, which is including using of low prices materials. In this study the potential of banana shells was assessed for adsorption of heavy metal ions such as Pb and Cd from aqueous solution.
Materials and Methods: Banana shells were pretreated separately with 0.4 mol/L NaOH, 0.4 mol/L HNO and distilled water and their adsorption ability were compared. Batch adsorption experiments were carried out as a function of the initial ion concentration, pH and adsorbent dosage. Adsorption isotherms of metal ions on adsorbents were determined and correlated with common isotherm equations such as Lungmuir, Freundlich and BET models.
Results: The maximum adsorption capacities were achieved by alkali modified banana shells (36 mg/g) for Pb and by acidic modified banana shells (16 mg/g) for Cd. Experimental results showed that the best pH for adsorption was 6 and the adsorption values decreased with lowering pH. Isotherm models indicated best fit for Freundlich model for modified banana shells.
Conclusion: In comparing the parameters of models, it was observed that the capacity of banana shells for adsorption of lead is higher  than for adsorption of cadmium, but the adsorption of  cadmium is stronger than the adsorption of lead.

Background and Objectives: Bottled water is a main beverage at many developed and developing countries. It can be polluted with chemical agents. One of these agents is nitrate which affects the safety of bottled and mineral water and cause healthy effects on consumer health. Today&aposs consumption of bottled water get a grate develop, thus infer of the quality of this matter is compulsive for each consumer.
Materials and Methods: A descriptive-analytical and cross- sectional study was done with the aim of determination of nitrate in bottled water available in market of Tehran City in 2007. In this study, 18 samples of six various manufacturers of product were examined.
Results: Results showed that the mean of nitrate is 9.02 mg/L and all samples have nitrate bellow 50 mg/L and they are at the standard level. Also, the results of the examinations have good correspondence with the concentration of nitrate on bottled water labels and according to statistic meaningful relation, was considered.
Conclusion: The nitrate content of these bottled water available in market of Tehran city is located at the level of national and global standards and it can not be a serious problem for health of consumer.

Background and Objectives: In the recent years Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) has been one of the most important environmental concerns to throughout regions of Iran. Sound MSW management for any area needs to the reliable data in which present the actual MSW condition in that area. The aim of this study is express of integrated view of MSW in Iran.
Materials and Methods:  In this study we collect the data from various municipal regions of Iran, to represent the roughly integrated view of MSW management situation in Iran. In this paper quantity, average generation rate, physical composition, and types of disposal methods in all of municipal regions of Iran also were investigated.
Results: Results from this study has shown that the amount of MSW generated in all of the municipal regions of Iran was 10370798 tons per year, and the average generation rate of MSW was 0.64 kg/capita/day. Results showed that only 6% of MSW was recycled, 10% was treated at organic waste (composting) plants, and about 84% was disposed of in landfill.
Conclusion: According to obtained results from this study and compare  MSW composition of Iran to some countries, its found that MSW properties in Iran is near to MSW properties in Low-income countries. Since the most of MSW in Iran contain organic fraction, there is a high potential to develop of composting industry.

Background and Objectives:Nowadays vermicompost production of food wastes is posed as one of appropriate methods to food wastes. disposal, its production used in agriculture and gardening. Moreover this process has some by products beside useful fertilizer that one of them is the worms. we can use them in variety of products specially in production of poultry and fish food. So determination of optimal condition for operating vermicompost production process of food wastes and worms. growth in these wastes is important. The aim of this study was determination of optimal temperature and moisture range for process progression in vermicompost production of food wastes.
Materials and Methods: In this study we used Eisenia foetida species. Process performed in pots with 15 cm (h) and 12 cm (d) and in a mouth period of time. Three ranges of temperature including 5-15, 15-25, 25-35 oC and three ranges of moisture including 55-65%, 65-75%, 75-85% were applied in this study.
Results: Multivariate analysis was used for analyze of results and it showed that influence of temperature and moisture on C:N ratio is significant in vermicomposting process (p <0.05).
Conclusion: The results showed that the range of temperature 15-25 oC is more appropriate for operating of process. Due to these study.s results with increasing or reduction of ambient temperature, like summer and winter, conservation of moisture around the range of 65-75 %, is effective in better performance of the process. According to this study.s results, it seems that the temperature of 15- 25 oC and moisture of 65-75% are better conditions for worm.s growth.

Background and Objectives:

handling of food and money contributes to the incidence of food-related public health incidents.

The objective of this study was to determine the total bacterial count and the presence of food borne

bacterial pathogens on Iranian currency notes, collected from food-related shops.

Materials and Methods: A total of 120 Iranian currency notes, comprising notes in four  denomination (2000, 5000, 10000 and 20000 R) were collected from various food-related shops including, butchery, bakery, confectionary, fast food, ice cream and poultry meat shop. The currency notes were categorized into three groups according to their physical conditions. All currency notes were examined for total bacterial count, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella and Listeria according to the standard techniques.
Results: The average number of total bacterial count in four denomination of currency notes (2000,  5000, 10000 and 20000 R) were 118.49, 106.32, 69.44 and 220.81 CFU/cm2, respectively. The association between total bacterial count and denomination of the currency was not statistically significant. Of the 120 currency notes on which bacteriological analysis was conducted 13.3 %, 32.5% and 10.8 % were contaminated with E. coli, S. aureus and B. cereus, respectively. Salmonella and Listeria were not isolated from samples. Currency notes collected from butchery, bakery, confectionary, fast food, ice cream and poultry meat shop were contaminated with E. coli at the rate of 60, 0, 5, 5, 0 and 10 % with S. aureus at the rate of 55, 30, 10, 25, 40 and 35 % with B. cereus at the rate of 0, 10, 20, 5, 20 and 10 %, respectively. There was not a statistically significant association between physical condition and bacterial contamination of the currency notes. The effect of presence or absence of cashier in food-related shops on bacterial contamination of the currency notes was also evaluated.
Conclusion: Money has got the potential to change through many different hands and could be  exposed to many different environments at a relatively high frequency. Since there is very little information regarding the hygienic history of any forms of currency, great care should be taken when the same person facilitates the handling of money and the preparation and handling of food to avoid cross contamination.

Background and Objectives: Atmospheric transport is a key mode of microbial dispersal and the transmission of airborne microbe can have significant impacts on human health. The main objective of this study was to determine the concentrations of airborne bacteria in a children.s hospital.
Materials and methods: Three sampling points were selected. Airborne bacteria were collected with 6 days interval at each location using Quick take 30® sampler at an sampling rate of 28.3 l min-1 from November 2007 to March2008.
Results: The results showed that the highest indoor density of bacteria was 429 CFU/m3 that founded in oncology ward. Bacteria identified were representative of normal flora of the skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts.
Conclusion:Our analysis revealed that colony of bacteria in 14% in patient room exceeded available guideline value for indoor air quality. That 11% cases was found in the oncology ward.

Background and Objectives: Experiments were conducted to investigate the behavior of Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) as a novel aerobic process for treatment of aniline synthetic wastewater as a hard biodegradable compound is commonly used in number of industrial processes. The objective of this paper is evaluation of MBBR in different conditions for treatment of aniline and determination of reaction kinetics.
Materials and Methods: In the MBBRs, different carriers are used to maximize the active biofilm surface area in the reactors. In this study, the reactor was filled with Light Expanded Clay Aggregate (LECA) as carriers. Evaluation of the reactor efficiency was done at different retention time of 8, 24, 48 and 72 hours with an influent COD from 100 to 3500 mg/L (filling ratio of 50%). After obtaining removal efficiencies, effluent concentration of aniline was measured by adsorption spectrum and maladaptive municipal wastewater treatment plant sludge in batch conditions for confidence of aniline biodegradation and its adsorption to the sludge mass.
Results:The maximum obtained removal efficiencies were 91% (influent COD=2000 mg/L) after 72 hours. Biodegradation of aniline in MBBR has been also approved by NMR spectrum tests. Finally experimental data has indicated that Grau second order model and Stover-Kincannon were the best models to describe substrate loading removal rate for aniline.
Conclusion:biological treatment of aniline wastewater compared to other researchers methods.

Background and Objectives : Propylene glycol is the main compound of anti-freezing chemicals. A significant amount of propylene glycol is released to the environment after application and contaminates the soil. The main objective of this study was to determine the biological removal of propylene glycol from wastewater and its degradation in soil by the isolated bacteria from activated sludge process.
Materials and Methods: In the present study, the sludge taken from the return flow in a local activated sludge treatment system was used as the initial seed. The performance of the bioreactor in treating the wastewater was evaluated at four different retention times of 18, 12, 6 and 4 h all with the inlet COD concentration of 1000 mg/L. This phase lasted around 4 months. Then, a part of the adapted microorganisms were transported from the bioreactor to the soil which was synthetically contaminated to the propylene glycol.
Results: The average of propylene glycol removal efficiency from the wastewater in detention times of 18, 12, 8 and 4 h in steady state conditions was 98.6%, 97.1%, 86.4% and 62.2% respectively. Also, the maximum degradation in soil was found to be 97.8%.
Conclusion: According to the results obtained from this study, it appears that propylene glycol is inherently well biodegradable and can be biodegraded in liquid phase and soil after a short period of adaptation.

Background and Objectives :Microorganisms including Fungi, are among air-transmitted infectious agents at hospitals and patient care settings, which in addition to patients, can afflict Health Care Workers (HCWs) and visitors, and may results in extravagant economic burden and impact on human health. Use of nanotechnology and especially nanosilver particles is one of the methods which are used in infection control. This article is the result of a research project investigating nanosilver painting effect on bioburden of indoor hospital air.
Materials and Methods: The study was aimed to assess antifungal effects of nanosilver painting. Three rooms were selected at the infectious diseases ward of Imam Khomeini hospital complex. Two of the rooms were painted with two brands of nanosilver paints provided from two separate companies (as cases), and the third room with non-nanosilver paint brand(as control).
Results: Air sampling was carried out using a portable air pump (Quick Take 30) at pre-planned schedule Each Sampling was done in two minutes with the rate of 28.3 Liter per minute. Samples were transferred on Sabourauds Dextrose Agar culture, to count the colonies of fungal based on Colony Forming Unite (CFU/m3). Results were analyzed by ANOVA method.
Conclusion: Active sampling method was not able to show statistically significant reduction in the total fungal bioburden between the control and case rooms. In evaluating the time trend of the nanosilver paints effect, sampling measures revealed that nanosilver paints had statistically significant effect in fungal bioburden reduction in the first third( i.e. first month) of the study period.

Backgrounds and Objectives:Safe drinking water providing is one of the main purposes in the community. Development and improvement of community is related to the public health. In this study !we studied the bacteriological quality of 116 villages under coverage of the water and wastewater companies in rural areas of Saqqez in.1386
Material and Methods:Drinking water of these rural areas have provided of deep, semi-depth- wells and spring water sources. Because in numerous rural areas both sources of drinking water and in some of them different sources of drinking water were used (old and new storage water source), in general, 359 samples were collected and transferred to the laboratory for testing to evaluate its quality. We also used linear Regression statistical analysis for collected data.
Results:results show that residual chlorine in drinking water in 33.88 percent of rural areas population were in range 0.2-1 mg/l. For 98.3 percent of the seqqez rural population, the turbidity was lower than the maximum permissible levels of drinking water standards of Iran (5 NTU). There was no any E.coli contamination in 88 percent of drinking water in saqqez rural areas.
Conclusion:Based on WHO guidelines concerning the microbial quality of water published in 2006! the average indicator for lack of E.coli in water of rural areas of seqqez was 88 percent and water is safe or good for drinking.

Backgrounds and Objectives: Swimming pools water if not disinfected properly can be one of the infection sources of different microorganisms such as staphylococcus. This study is to aware the authorities and users about the conditions existed in sheltered swimming pools in Sari and to believe the contamination of the water there, related to the existence of staphylococcus aureus.

Materials and Method: In this descriptive study 32 specimens collected randomly from 15 swimming pools in action during three months from 60 cm deep under specific conditions in sterile containers and taken to the laboratory of health college in 2 hrs and were analyzed for the contamination from staphylococcus aureus and some other parameters like temperature, pH, chlorine residual and opacity on the basis of microbiological and standard methods.

Result: Results showed an average temperature of 27.08 degree Celsius, PH=7.6, average chlorine residual 1 mil/l and opacity average was 77 NTU % and the highest contamination from staphylococcus aureus (29.3 %) in C and the lowest (10.19 %) was observed in D swimming pool. Furthermore this analysis showed that in 90% of specimens there was a direct relationship between the ratio of chlorine residual, times of swimming, water temperature and the number of staphylococcus.

Conclusion: Swimming pools water if not disinfected properly can be one of the infection sources of different microorganisms such as staphylococcus. Some suggestions inorder to optimization of the swimming pools condition presented in this paper.

Backgrounds  and Objectives:  Over than 70% of solid wastes is consisted of food wastes with high putrecibility in Iran.  Due to this regard, construction of composting factories for sanitary disposal or fertilizer production from solid wastes was very appreciated in our country. The objective of this research was to study on the quality and comparing of the compost produced by Khomain and Tehran compost factories.
Materials and Methods: This study was accomplished on the compost produce from Khomain and Tehran compost factories about 9 months. For investigation of chemical qualities of these materials, some indexes such as percentage of organic materials, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potash and heavy metals consists of lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium were measured. Microbial quality of these compost materials were defined by assessing of the amounts of coliforms bacteria, salmonella bacteria and parasites ova.
Results: The average amounts of some indexes in compost of Khomain and Tehran were been: organic materials % (37.77, 29.80), carbon %( 22.14, 18.12), nitrogen% (2.08, 1.6), lead (229.6, 59.44 ppm), and chromium (70.2, 19.75), respectively. The microbial quality of these compost samples were agreement with class B of USEPA guidelines.
Conclusion: This study showed that quality of organic materials percent in Tehran's samples was better than Khomain's samples, but these indexes on these samples were lower than the grade No.2 of compost. The percentage of carbon, nitrogen and potash in these samples were desirable but, phosphorus amount were not in sufficient. The heavy metals especially lead and chromium in Tehran's samples were higher than Khomain's samples, but these samples were usually in agreement with guidelines of compost. Due to the defined microbial qualities, these samples could be used as well as amendment agents for poor soil.

Backgrounds and Objectives : Nitrogen compounds in wastewater are mainly in four types of organic, am- monia, nitrite and nitrate. Total nitrogen concentration in municipal wastewater is usually within 25 to 45 mg/L as nitrogen. The most important problem with nitrogen is its oxygen demand and human health effect.
Materials and Methods: Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) is a system in which baffles are used to direct  wastewater flow. During 9 months study, a 15 liter modified ABR (104*30*15 cm) with eight baffled com- partments was used for nitrification-denitrification processes. In the seventh compartment, the wastewater was aerated to oxidize ammonia to nitrite and nitrate.
Results : Denitrification was done in the first four compartments with removal efficiency from 60 to 84 per- cent for nitrite and nitrate, respectively. During the shock loading study (4 times of the last influent), a sharp decrease in nitrogen removal rate was observed which was then returned to the previous efficiency after 11 days. Artificial neural network was used to evaluate and process the data in which the observed error in 10 patterns was less than 15 percent.
Conclusion : Anaerobic baffled reactor with an influent of up to 200 mg/L has capability to remove total  nitrogen concentration to less than the standard level of Iranian Department of Environment of 50 mg/L as nitrate and 10 mg/L as nitrogen.

Backgrounds and Objectives: Drinking water quality after treatment and before reaching  the consumer could be affected by distribution pipes, service lines and Home devices. The structure of water coolers, a home device that are widely used in warm months of the year, could potentially affect the quality of drinking water. The aim of this study was to assess the microbial and chemical quality of water from conventional water coolers.
Materials and Methods : Water samples were collected from 29 water cooler systems at the Isfahan  university of medical sciences. 29 control samples also obtained from the nearest drinking water taps. All samples were examined for total heterotrophic bacteria and physicochemical parameters including temperature, ph, turbidity and heavy metals.
Results: All samples from the water cooler systems complied with the EPA guidelines for total heterotrophic bacteria count. There were no significant differences between the levels of heavy metals in water samples from the water cooler systems and taps. There was only a significant difference between the level of Cu in the water samples from cooler systems and taps
Conclusion: The overall results of this study indicated that the use of water cooler systems from hygienic point of view could not cause any problems for consumers

Backgrounds and Objectives:Propylene glycol is applied in many industries as raw material and can be released to the environment through wastewater of such industries. The biological treatment of solutions containing high concentration of propylene glycol is difficult and some problems can be observed during this process. The main objective of this study was the investigation of electrochemical degradation of propylene glycol and the parameters influencing on improving removal efficiency.
Materials and Methods: In this study the degradation of propylene glycol was made by passing an electrical current though the synthetic wastewater containing propylene glycol. In order to investigate this process several types of electrode with applied voltage ranging between 5 to 50 V was used. Due to the effect of NaCl concentration on removal efficiency which was mentioned in the literature, the experiment was performed for different NaCl concentrations.
Results: In optimum condition, the maximum removal efficiency of propylene glycol (based onCOD) was obtained equal to 90%. The results showed that rising applied voltage, NaCl concentrationand retention time increase the removal efficiency. The optimum retention time was obtained equalto 50 min. The maximum removal was obtained when aluminum electrode was used. It can beattributed to the production of coagulant material such as Al+3 during this process.
Conclusion: The results revealed that this process can be useful for treating the industrial wastewatercontaining propylene glycol.

Backgound and Objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate water consumption, domestic wastewater generation and organic matter concentration, based on both, economical income and meteorological temperature.
Materials and Methods: The method of this study is descriptive and analytical. A checklist was used to collect data on economical income. Water consumption was obtained based on water bills. Wastewater generation and organic matter such as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) per capita/ day were measured every four hours, during a day in three regions of Kermanshah city: Kasra, Ellaheiah and Taavon.
Results: Comparing water consumption in winter and summer showed significant difference in three regions, mentioned above. The water consumption was (398 ± 75, 291 ± 48 and 188 ± 50) for warm climate and (200 ± 25, 188 ± 35 and 140 ± 41) for three regions respectively in cold weather. In spite of an apparent difference in BOD in three regions, it was not significant statistically. Water consumption has strongly considerable relationship with economical income (r =0.988, P_value <0.001), while the generated wastewater in these regions were not different, statistically for warmclimate (220 ± 60, 204 ± 15 and 170 ±34), and in cold weather (170 ± 21, 158 ± 31 and 112 ±29), also the generated wastewater did not have considerable difference in cold climate. This study confirms that, the effects of these two parameters, i.e.monthly economical income and environmental temperature on water consumption, generated wastewater and biodegradable organic loading per capita/day is considerable. It was concluded that water consumption and wastewater generations were much more in warm climate than in cold weather.
Conclusion: Finally through this study the estimation of water consumption, wastewater generation and BOD concentration becomes possible, which is beneficial for establishment of water consumption.

Backgrounds and Objectives: Domestic sewers and wastewater treatment plants are suitable places for the growth of some types of Cockroaches. Annually the water and wastewater company of Qom city make considerable attempts to overwhelm the problem. The current study is aimed to determine types of Cockroaches and select the optimal methods for their control.
Materials andMethods: In this study, 120 manholes are selected in different locations of Qom city, the numbers of Cockroaches are counted and the Cockroaches are classified into different groups. Then, each group are faced to different insecticides Including Simperator, Diazinon , Dursban Ec, Faikam, Sipermetrin, Icon, Deltametrina and Sulfac. One group of manholes was considered as blank sample during one month. Counting and determination of Cockroaches in these manholes conducted before using insecticides and also five months after it.
Results: the study showed that all sewers were 100% polluted by Cockroaches. The number of Cockroaches in manholes range from minimum 4 to maximum 3600 in each manhole. The applied of insecticides including Dursban Ec, Simperator, Sulfac, Dursban, and Deltametrina are used 2 gr in 100 square meter of area of each sewer. The Cockroaches population reduced to approximately zero after application of these insecticides. Spraying sewers by Simperator controlled 100% of Cockroaches.
Conclusion: the most effective method for the control of Cockroaches was usage of 2 gr of Dursban (Ec) in squaremeter of area in the beginning of warmseason.If we use 1-1/5months interval between the time of spraying insecticide in selected wells, with using simperator and dursban (Ec) we can overwhelm Cockroaches using Simperator and Dursban Ec. The results of statistical analysis show that reduction of number of coackroaches in one month after using poison is significant (P-value< 0.05). But after 5months it lose meaningful in all of them.Also, reduction of number of coackroachesin blank manholes was not statistically significant.

Backgrounds andObjectives:The objective of the present study was to evaluate the potential effect of environmental exposure to toxic metal (cadmium) on pregnancy outcome and fetal growth.
Materials and Methods: 330 normal pregnant women were randomly selected from vali-e-asr hospital, from July 2003 through Feb. 2005. Cadmium was measured in umbilical cord blood and mother whole blood of postpartum women without occupational exposure to metals in Tehran, Iran, using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
Result: Whole blood cadmium and cord blood cadmium ranged from 0/00 to 6/30 &mug/L ,respectivly. in the group higher level of maternal blood cadmium (> 0.40 &mug/L) 1cm decrease was seen in neonatal birth height. (p = 0.007) There was a significant association between cadmium exposure and birth weight.Mann-whitney test showed that, maternal blood cadmium level, was significantly negatively associated with neonatal birth weight (z = -1.83, P < 0.06).
Conclusion: It was concluded that environmental exposure to cadmium significantly reduces neonatal birth height.

Backgrounds and Objectives: Formaldehyde and phenol are key precursors in the industrial manufacture of resins. Toxicity of these compounds prevents function of microbial populations, so they affect the biological treatments. The aim of this study was investigation of TOC removal from phenol-formaldehyde resin manufacturing wastewater by electrocoagulation using Al- electrodes.
Materials and Methods: This study is the laboratory scale experiment was conducted as a pilot. Wastewater sample was adjusted in the desired pH, electrical conductivity and current density, then it was placed in to the reactor contains four electrodes in aluminum. The electrodes were connected to a DC power supply (0-40V, 0-3A). Samples were collected for TOC determination in the middle of cell at regular time intervals. Collected samples were analyzed using TOC analyzer.
Results:The results indicated that the optimum conditions for the removal of TOC were current density 75 A/m2, solution pH 4 and Conductivity 3 mS/cm. In this condition energy consumption was found 22.5 kWh m-3 after 60 min reaction.
Conclusion: This study shows that electrocoagulation of wastewater from phenol-formaldehyde resin manufacturing can be used as a pretreatment process.

Backgrounds and Objectives: Carcinogenic and mutagenic potential of some azo dyes as a category of common dyes in different types of industries has been reported. The degradation of one commercially available dyestuff [C.I. Reactive Red 198 (RR 198)] by means of ultraviolet radiation (UV), ultrasonic irradiation (US), UV/H2O2 and US/H2O2 processes was investigated.
Materials and Methods: Photolysis process was accomplished in a laboratory-scale batch photoreactor equipped with an 55W immersed-type low-pressure mercury vapour lamp (UVC) and sonication in a sonoreactor with low frequency (42 kHz) plate type transducer at 170W of acoustic power with emphasis on the effect of various parameters on decolouration and degradation efficiency.
Results: Initial results showed that, color removal efficiencies by US and US/H2O2 processes were negligible. Almost complete disappearance of RR 198 (20 mg/L) in UV/H2O2 process was possible to achieve after 10 min of irradiation. It is found that lower pH and lower concentration of dye favor the dye degradation. Hence any increase in initial dye concentration results in decreased decolouration rates. Also, the experimental results indicated that the kinetics of sono-oxidation and photo-oxidation processes fit well by pseudo-first order kinetics and first order reaction kinetics, respectively.
Conclusion: It is concluded that UV/H2O2 reaction was more effective than other reactions in bleaching and the reaction rate was sensitive to the operational parameters and increased with increasing H2O2 concentration up to 15 mM.