Journal of Human, Environment, and Health Promotion

75-79

Authors: Shirazeh Arghami, Reza Kalantari*, Elham Ahmadi Kionani, Ahmad Zanjirani Farahani, Mehrdad Kamrani

Background: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) may involve all parts of the body, and have been a worldwide problem. Employed women are two to five times more likely to report such problems, and assembly lines suspected to induce more WMSDs because of high rate of repetitive motions. Methods:The aim of this study to determine the prevalence of WMSDs in women workers of an automobile manufacturing assembly line. In this cross-sectional survey, 50 women workers in an automobile manufacturing assembly line were studied. Data was collected based on Nordic questionnaire. The statistical analysis was performed by the SPSS 11 software. Results: The MSDs prevalence rate was 98%. The most reported complaint was related to the back (68%) and there was a significant relationship between prevalence and pain severity with age and working years. Moreover, the duration of feeling pain per day, and pain severity had a significant relationship with the capability of the person to continue working. Conclusion: Workstations ergonomically improvement and employing men instead of women would be effective to reduce the problems.

87-98

Authors: Negin Soleimani*, Mehran Mohammadian Fazli, Ali Ramazani, Mohammadreza Mehrasbi

Background: Various industries produce and discharge wastes containing different heavy metals into the environment. Apart from using living biomass, dead and dried biomasses have been introduced as a new field of biotreatment technology. Method: The cadmium (Cd) (II) removal characteristics of live (growing), dead (autoclaved), and oven-dried biomasses of Aspergillus versicolor were examined as a function of initial pH, contact time, and initial Cd concentration. Result: Maximum bioaccumulation of Cd for live biomass [11.63 (mg g−¹)] occurred at an optimal pH of 4 and incubation time of 4 days. Themaximum biosorption of 27.56 (mg g−¹) for dead biomass occurred at 1.5 h and at a pH of 4. The maximum biosorption [18.08 (mg g−¹)] with dried biomass was reached at an equilibrium time of 3 h at a pH of 6. Conclusion: The present study confirmed that heat treatment promoted the removal capacity of fungi. Cd removal was increased by decreasing the pH in live and dead-mode experiments. Inversely, Cd removal was increased with increasing pH for the dried biomass of A. versicolor. Varying responses to environmental conditions (pH and contact time) clearly proved the different removal mechanisms used by three biomasses of A. versicolor. Higher Cd concentration increased the removal ability of three types of biomasses. The results indicated that all biomasses of A. versicolor used in this study, particularly dead biomass, are a suitable biosorbent for the removal of Cd (II) ions from aqueous solution.

105-109

Authors: Hossein Masoumi-jahandizi*, Koroosh Kamali, Ali Mohammadi

Background: Reproduction is an important population concept throughout the world, and demographists consider it among four main life events. Given Iran's population growth policy, this study was conducted to assess the tendency to pregnancy in women in Zanjan. Method: From among health centers in five geographical districts in Zanjan (North, South, East, West, and Center), one was randomly selected from each district, and the study was conducted on a total of 400 people. Data were analyzed in SPSS-16 using descriptive and inferential tests including Chi-square, t-test (mean test) and variance analysis. Results: A total of 186 women (46.5%) desired pregnancy after marriage and 212 (53%) did not. Also, 209 husbands (52.2%) agreed with childbearing after marriage, and 186 (45.5%) disagreed. Conclusion: Childbearing can be encouraged among husbands agreeing with pregnancy of their spouse (more than half) and women attending pregnancy counseling and family planning centers.

118-124

Authors: Tooran Yarahmadi, Mazyar Peyda*, Mehran Mohammadian Fazli, Rezan Rezaeian, Negin Soleimani

Background Turbidity removal using inorganic coagulants such as iron and aluminum salts in water treatment processes causes environmental and human health concern. Historically, the use of natural coagulant to purify turbid water has been practiced for a long time. Recent research indicates that Descurainia Sophia seed can be effectively used as a natural coagulant to remove water turbidity. Method: In this work, turbidity removal efficiency of Descurainia Sophia seed extract was compared with Ferric chloride. Experiments were performed in laboratory scale. The coagulation experiments were done with kaolin as a model soil to produce turbidity in distilled water. The turbidity removal efficiency of Descurainia Sophia seed extract and Ferric chloride were conducted with jar test apparatus. In all experiments, initial turbidity was kept constant 100(NTU). Optimum combination of independent variables was used to compare two different types of coagulants. Result: The obtained results showed that Ferric chloride could remove 89.75% of the initial turbidity, while in case of Descurainia Sophia this value was 43.13%. The total organic carbon (TOC) analysis of the treated water using seed extract showed an increased concentration of TOC equal to 0.99 mg/L. Conclusions: This research has shown that Descurainia Sophia seed extract has an acceptable potential in the coagulation/flocculation process to treat turbid water.