Iranian Journal of

Background and Objectives: Measurement of light intensity is a recommended practice for insuring the delivery of required germicidal dose in disinfection operations by UV lamps. Use of sensitive to light chemicals which is the base of actionometeric methods could be considered as a suitable manner for estimating the intensity of UV lamp in circumstances that special radiometers are not available.
Materials and Methods: lodide-iodate mixture was used as an actinometer for this study. The light intensities of a UV lamp (LP 25W) were first determined by a special UVC ‌radiometer at certain distances from the lamp. Then the test of determining the suitable period of time for irradiation of actinometer was accomplished.  Finally، the color changes of iodide - iodate solutions at the predetermined distances were evaluated at the wavelength of 352 nm. The latter analysis can be done by a common (visible) spectrophotometer.
Results:‌ Results indicated that use of this actinometer is more suitable at the distances of 35 to 60 cm from the center of the lamp bulb، since iodode-iodate solution has a detectable color change at this range of distance in one minute irradiation which may be considered as a reasonable time for actionmeteric operations.
Conclusion:  Although all kinds of actinometers should not be regarded as precise as special radiometers and there would be need to use pure chemicals for actinometeric determination of light intensity، it can be claimed that the recommended procedure in this study which is the newest actinometeric method can be used in acceptable evaluation of UV intensity with least difficulty in providing necessary instruments.

Backgrounds and Objectives:The food handling employee education program improves food safety. Determining knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) level of workers who prepare, distribute and sale the food products make easy to control food safety. This study aimed to evaluate effects of intensive food safety education course on KAP of food handlers. in Kermanshah.
Materials andMethods: Knowledge, attitude and practice of 370workers of variety of food handling fields were studied before and after educational intervention course.Avalidated questionnaire about knowledge, attitude based on instruction from Ministry of Health and Medical Sciences for food handling was used for data collection. Paired t-test and Χ² were applied for statistical analysis.
Results: The results showed positive effects of education program on KAP of food handlers. There was significant increase in knowledge marks before and after intervention, 20.5+ 4.03 vs. 23.73 + 3.75 (p<0.001).Attitude and practice of participants were increased significantly before 107.2+14.6 43.93+7.6 compared to after 112.23+14.5 46.11+8 intervention respectively (p<0.001). The most increased mark of KAP was belonged to 21-30 years age group.
Conclusion: Our findings confirm that educational intervention improved KAP of food handlers. To increase food safety, running periodical educational courses for the same filed workers with final exam and providing certificate highly recommended.

Background and Objectives: Food borne diseases are one of the common and persistent problems of health system that staff in food preparation and distribution centers play important role in their incident. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of educational courses on changing hygienic knowledge and practice of managers and staff in food preparation and distribution centers in Mashhad in 2012. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, knowledge and practice in tree domains of personal, construction and tools hygiene were studied in 513 employees and employers of food preparation and distribution centers in Mashhad. The data was collected through interview, observation, and inspection checklist. Results: 265 subjects (51.6%) passed training course and awarded certificate, while 248 subjects (48.4%) did not participate whatsoever in training courses. Mean scores of knowledge and performance in trained group were 68.1±16.1 and 70.8±10.5% and in untrained group were 62.6±15.4 and 61.8±11.6% respectively, indicating statistically significant difference (p<0.05). Comparing scores of knowledge and practice scores between employers with valid certificate (during last 3 years) with employers without certificate did not show any valuable statistically difference in score reduction. Conclusion: This study showed that hygienic training courses can be effective in improving knowledge and practice of managers and staff in food preparation and distribution centers.