Journal of Health and Safety at Work

Diazinon is commonly used for pest control in the agricultural fields because of its relatively low cost and high efficiency. Due to the increasing application of pesticides, reliable and accurate analytical methods are necessary for their monitoring. This work was aimed to design the high selective electrochemical sensor for determining of diazinon in biological and environmental samples. The composition of sensor was modified with multi-walls carbon nanotubes and a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP). A diazinon MIP was synthesized and applied in the carbon paste electrode (CP). The prepared sensor was used to determine the concentration of analyte. Parameters affecting the sensor response, such as sample pH, electrolyte concentration and its pH, and the instrumental parameters of square wave voltammetry, were optimized in different levels to select the optimum conditions for analysis of diazinon. The MIP-CP electrode showed very high specificity for determining the analyte. The obtained linear range was 1×10-6 to 5×10-10 mol L-1. The detection limit was 2.7×10-10 molL-1. This sensor was successfully used to determine the diazinon in environmental and biological real samples without special sample pretreatment before analysis.

Introduction: Mercury, in different form can induce adverse effects on various organs especially central nervous system. The aim of this study was to determine concentration of mercury in inhalation and urine of the exposed worker and to investigate the prevalence of probable neurobehavioral disorders.
 

Material and Method: The present case-control study was conducted among workers of a unit in a petroleum industry. The study population consisted of 52 workers as case and 63 workers as control groups. The mercury concentration in air and urine was measured according to NIOSH 6009 standard and using the cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometer (CV-AAS). Demographic data and neurobehavioral disorders were collected using a self-reported questionnaire. Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression tests and SPSS v24 were used to analyze the data.
 

Result:  Air concentration of mercury was 0.062 ± 0.0014 mg/m3  which was higher than the recommended threshold by NIOSH and ACGIH. In addition, there was a significant difference between urinary concentration of mercury in the case (37.73 ± 13.01 µg/g cratinine) and control (5.93 ± 4.76 µg/g cratinine) groups (p=0.03 6). Based on the multivariate logistic regression model, significant relationships were found between memory loss, sleep disturbance, and urine mercurial concentrations and, between memory loss, moody, muscle weakness and air mercurial concentration.
 

Conclusion: The values of Hg in blood and urine workers who worked in investigated unit were significantly higher than recommended threshold values. In addition, the Hg concentration in urine was related to some of neurobehavioral disorders.