Journal of Human, Environment, and Health Promotion

201-211

Authors: Alaba Olanreaju Clement*, Adesida Adeniyi Patrick

Background: The release of lead dust during the processing of lead-gold ore has become an environmental threat. Therefore the protection of miners’ health and their environment required remediation which can be achieved by ranking the risk posed by lead in order to prioritize the allocation of resources during remediation. Methods: Soil and water samples were collected at BRC, BRG, BVC, BPA and BFA; BWE, BBH and BPO using stratified random and grab sampling methods. Lead concentrations in the samples were determined using AAS while health risk index (HRI) via ingestion was estimated using USEPA equations. The ranking of HRI was done using Detailed Quantitative Risk Assessment while the difference between the HRI and USEPA standard were determined using one sample t test. Results: The result showed that BRC/10, BRG/03, BVC/11, BPA/02 and BFA/08 were ranked highest in soil samples, while BWE/02, BBH/09 and BPO/04 were ranked highest in water samples as they posed elevated health risk effects to miners. One sample t test established that the BRC, BPA, BFA and BPO were significantly different from United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) standard. Conclusion: The study discovered that the users of both the lead contaminated soil and water were seriously exposed to potential health risk. It therefore suggested that decision makers should give priority in allocating resources to those sites with elevated lead concentrations during the remediation.

220-225

Authors: Saber Barkhori-Mehni, Saeed Khanzadi, Mohammad Hashemi*, Mohammad Azizzadeh

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate antimicrobial effect of Zataria multiflora Boiss essential oil (EO) against six fish spoilage bacteria for evaluation of its potential utilization in the preservation of minimally processed fish products. Methods: Firstly, GC-MS analysis of the EO was performed to determine its chemical composition. Then, antibacterial effect of the EO in a range of 0.031 to 4 mg/ml was tested against different fish spoilage bacteria such as Aeromonas hydrophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Shewanella putrefaciens, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis by broth microdilution method to determine minimum inhibitory (MIC) and minimum bactericidal (MBC) concentrations. Results: GC-MS results showed that phenolic components such as carvacrol (51.55%) and thymol (25.49%) were predominant constituents of the EO. Zataria multiflora Boiss EO exhibited strong antimicrobial activity against all tested bacteria. Shewanella Putrefaciens was the most sensitive bacteria with MBC value of 0. 5 mg/ml. Conclusion: According to the results, this EO could be used as an important natural alternative to prevent bacterial growth in food specially seafood products to preserve them against bacterial spoilage.

234-244

Authors: Shahrokh Izadi*

Background: To determine the most usual resources that adolescents and teenagers are using to learn about sexual issues. A cross-sectional exploratory study implemented in June 2015 in Zahedan, the capital city of Sistan-va-Baluchestan Province, located in the southeast of Iran. Methods: Using convenient sampling method, from among student of two large universities in Zahedan, 134 students 18 to 22 years old, accepted invitation for filling a self-administered anonymized questionnaire containing, 8 semi-closed questions about sexual issues. Results: 44.9% of women and 41.6% of men mentioned one of their friends as their tutors. While 42.0% of women mentioned their mothers as one of their tutors, only 18.8% of them believed that more than 50% of their sexual knowledge came from their mothers. 23.1% of male participants and 36.2% of female ones alleged to know personally people of their own ages who had been subjected to sexual abuse or harassment earlier in their life. Conclusion: In Iran, educating sexual issues to adolescents is badly in need of organization and management. While the rule of a committed extra-family tutor (e.g. an officially appointed school teacher) might not be considered a solution, parents have to be prompted for filling the gap.

253-260

Authors: Zahra Abedi, Mohammad Reza Mehrasbi*, Ali Assadi

Background: Natural organic matters (NOMs) have the main role in formation of trihalomethanes. These compounds are in natural water sources due to biological activities. In the presented study, adsorption and separation of humic acid as an index of natural organic matters using multi-walled carbon nanotubes is evaluated. Methods: The experiments were carried out in bath adsorption reactors with different concentrations of humic acid. The effects of pH, adsorbent dose, national concentrations of humic acid and contact time as study variables were tested in separated experiments, as well as, kinetic and isotherm models of the adsorption process were determined. Results: The results showed that the adsorption follows Freundlich isotherm model and pseudo second-order kinetic equation. The removal percent of humic acid reached to higher than 90% with dosage of 1g/l of nanotube. Conclusion: Adsorption of humic acid from water by multi-walled carbon nanotubes is an efficient alternative pretreatment method in water treatment plants.