Iranian Journal of health, safety andenvironment

1017-1026

Authors: Hossein Shahbazi, Vahid Hosseini, Yousef Rashidi, Parya Broomandi

A new analytical air pollution modeling system is introduced in this paper to estimate concentrations of primary and secondary air pollutants and using it for further studies in order to improve the knowledge of pollutants emission and dispersion over Tehran, and developing a decision support system. For this purpose, WRF/CAMx modeling system was used to simulate the gas-phase pollutants concentrations including primary and secondary pollutants, over Tehran during a wintertime episode, which is characterized by very high concentrations of pollutants. Pollutants were triggered by meteorological conditions leading to a forced holiday imposed on citywide operations to protect the health of citizens. Based on calculated Values of NMB error, WRF performs acceptable in predicting temperature and wind speed. Generally, time series plots show that WRF performs acceptable in mild selected episode. Also, the daily trends of pollutant concentrations are greatly affected by changes in local meteorological conditions such as planetary boundary layer (PBL) height, temperature, wind, and relative humidity over the Tehran area. An underestimation in prediction of all pollutants concentrations episode at Poonak and Aghdasyeh sites show due to the insufficient emission data at the site position used for the simulation were seen. Results showed that WRF/CAMx modeling system proved to be a useful tool for analyzing urban environmental problems, investigating the impact of air quality control policies, and predicting critical conditions. However, there were weaknesses in input data and modeling system calibration that should be improved before using the system for further studies.

1035-1040

Authors: Zahra Godarzvand Chegini, Amir Hossaain Javid, Amir Hesam Hassani

The application of biological treatment has been promising in recent years for the main advantage of biological treatment in COD and dye removal. The novelty of this study is capabilities of integrated fixed film system (IFAS) with a different arrangement of media to removal the dye and COD. The experiments were done with a survey of variables like SRT, MLSS/MLVSS, the initial concentration of dye and COD. In order to analyze data was used the first and second-order models. The result showed that the IFAS was effective even at high concentration of the dye (200mg L-1). COD reduction and dye removal efficiency were higher than 70% and 88-95%, respectively. For the biological treatment, an increase in SRT to 48hr. increased the dye and COD concentration reduction. Kinetics of COD reduction and dye removal was fitted with the second-order reaction by coefficient correlation of 0.95 and 0.97, respectively. Finally, the integration of fixed film media into the biological reactors affected performances of the system for decolorization from colored wastewater.

1051-1057

Authors: Mahdi Jalali, Sajjad Farhadi, Seyyed Ali Moussavi Najarkola, Sayyed Amir Reza Negahban, Razzagh Rahimpour, Ghasem Hesam, Hassan Mohammadpour

Occupational exposure to heat stress in casting and smelting industries can cause adverse health effects on employees who working in such industries. The present study was set to assess the correlation and agreement of heat stress indices, including wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), and thermal work limit (TWL), and the deep body temperature indices in workers of several casting and smelting industries located in the vicinity of Tehran, Iran. In This cross-sectional study 40 workers randomly selected and were examined. WBGT and TWL were the indices used for assessing heat stress, and the tympanic temperature and the oral temperature were measured as the heat strain indices. The correlation and agreement of indices were measured using SPSS vs.16. The results of the assessment of WBGT, TWL, the tympanic temperature, and oral temperature showed that 80, 17.5, 40, and 32.5 percent of workers exposed to heat stress higher than permissible limits proposed by standard bodies. Moreover, the present study showed that the significant correlation coefficient between heat stress and heat strain indices was in the range of 0.844- 0.869. Further, there was observed a good agreement between TWL and heat strain indices. The agreement between TWL and the oral temperature was 0.63 (P-value≤ 0.001) and between TWL and tympanic temperature was 0.612 (P-value≤ 0.001). However, the agreement between WBGT and heat strain indices was not satisfactory. These values were 0.154 (P-value ≥ 0.068) and 0.215 (P-value≥ 0.028) for the oral temperature and the tympanic temperature, respectively. The TWL index had a better agreement than WBGT with heat strain indices so TWL index is the better choice for assessing the heat stress in casting and metal smelting industries.

1066-1071

Authors: Jafar Akbari, Shahram Safari, Meghdad Kazemi, Heshmatollah Nourmoradi, Behzad Mahaki, Habibollah Dehghan

Many studies have reported that exposure to workplace noise leads to increase in blood pressure. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hearing protection devices (HPDs) including ear plug and ear muff on the systolic and diastolic blood pressures of workers exposed to workplace noise in a textile industry. A total of 120 male workers that exposed to 95 dB noise were investigated in this study. The systolic and diastolic blood pressures of the workers were measured for three situations of earplug, earmuff and earplug along earmuff applications. Data analyses were conducted through SPSS software (version 20) and statistical tests of ANOVA and Independent Sample Tests. The comparison of mean blood pressure in three situations showed that using ear muff had a significant effect on the systolic and diastolic blood pressures in the workers. Furthermore, the use of ear plug only had an effect on the systolic blood pressure. But, the application of ear muff caused to decrease in the systolic and diastolic blood pressures only in the third stage of the study. With regard to the results in this study, in order to control the blood pressure changes of the workers, it is recommended to use ear muff in the textile industry.

1077-1081

Authors: Ayoub Ghanbary Sartang, Mehdi Ashnagar, Ehsanollah Habibi, Saeid Sadeghi

Shift work has been recognized as an important tool for organizing of work in developing countries. The disturbed depression, stress accident are the most common health‐related effects of shift work. The military personnel shift worker during work, are exposed to stress and psychological pressure that certainly affect the efficiency of their work. The aim of this study was to Investigation Effect of shift work on job burnout and Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale in military personnel. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 military personnel male in Southern Iran. Respondents were divided into two groups based on their working schedule (50 shift work personnel / 50 day work personnel). Data collection tools were a Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), demographic characteristics and Maslach job burnout questionnaire. Convenience sampling was used as sampling method. Finally, Data analysis was performed with SPSS (version 20), descriptive statistics, One Way Anova test, ANCOVA and t-independent test. The results of showed that shift work has an impact on burnout and DASS-21 and mean obtained score for DASS-21 and job burnout in shift workers are more day work individuals. Analysis of variance test showed significant difference between job burnout in day workers and shift workers and job burnout were more in shift workers. Also significant difference between DASS-21 in day workers and shift workers and DASS-21 was more in shift workers. This study showed that shift work has an impact on burnout and scale DASS-21 shall is taken to Intervention actions in shift works.

939-946

Authors: Batoul Mohebrad, Abbas Rezaee, Somayyeh Dehghani

The aim of this study was the investigation of electrochemical process for sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) removal from aqueous solutions using different electrode materials. The influence of operating parameters such as current density, solution initial pH, surfactant concentrations, retention time, supporting electrolyte concentrations, electrode materials (aluminum, titanium, galvanized steel, stainless steel) and electrical energy consumption were evaluated. The obtained results indicated that the stainless steel electrode was more efficient than other electrodes. Maximum SDS removal was obtained 94.98% at the optimum condition of initial pH 7.0, 60 min retention time, 3.125 mA/cm2 current density, 100 mg/L initial SDS concentration and 0.2 g/L NaCl concentration. The electrical energy consumption of stainless steel, aluminum, titanium and galvanized steel was achieved 4, 3.68, 12 and 4.48 KWh/m3, respectively. It was found that the electrochemical reaction using stainless steel plate electrodes was efficient in SDS removal from aquatic environments.

957-965

Authors: Ghader Ghanizadeh, Ramin Khoshniyat, Farhad Karimi, Mohammad Reza Haghshenas, Masoud abdollahi, Eghbal Hamidi, Mahan Rahimi

Sanandaj in the west of Iran is one of the main city that suffered from Arabic Dust Storm (ADS). As Sanandaj isn’t industrial city and located in the mountainous region, one of the main sources of air pollution which has adverse effects on citizens and environment is PM10 which comes from Arabic Dust Storm. In this way, the goal of this study was to the assessment of these adverse health effects. So the hourly data of concentration of PM10 (measured by Beta attenuation method) were taken from Kurdistan Environmental Protection Agency in 2015. the 24-hour average concentration of particulate matter has exceeded about 182 times (days) more than the National Standards and WHO guideline values and the average annual concentration of PM10 were about 1.5 times more than the National Standard and WHO guideline values during the period of the exam. By means of Air Q2,2,3 software the data analyzed and baseline incidence(BI), relative risk(RR) and attributable proportion(AP) were calculated. The results of this study showed that short-term health effect of PM10 could increase of total mortality except accidents and poisoning(4.13%), hospital admission cardiovascular(4.98%), cardiovascular mortality(4.45%), hospital admission respiratory(4.45%) and respiratory mortality(0.2%). This study demonstrated that a high percentage of cardiovascular and respiratory morbidity and mortality rate increased due to the raising of the concentration of PM10. To reduce the emission of PM10 from main sources and relationship between the hospital and Kurdistan Environmental Protection Agency and whether organization and people to be alert are necessary.

972-981

Authors: Morteza Rahbar Taramsary, Mohammad Namvar, Majid Golabadi, Seyed Mohammad Seyedmehdi, Elham Farid

Introduction: Shoulder is among the most common sites of musculoskeletal pain. Shoulder and neck pain has been widely investigated but its etiology still remains unknown. However, it appears to be multifactorial. Despite extensive studies on shoulder pain and its etiology, studies on the effect of general health status on non-specific shoulder pain are scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate relationship between non-specific shoulder pain and general health status in Tire production industry workers. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a large tire factory during 2013-2015 and 497 male production line workers were evaluated. Characteristics of workers at baseline were evaluated using a questionnaire covering three main domains: Demographic and occupational characteristics, general health questionnaire (GHQ) and the job content questionnaire (JCQ). subjects were followed up for developing shoulder pain for one year. Results: At one year following the first visit, 159 (32%) subjects complained of unilateral or bilateral shoulder pain. T-test applied for quantitative variables revealed that the mean work experience, the general health questionnaire (GHQ) score and the quick exposure check (QEC) score were significantly higher in patients suffering from shoulder pain than healthy subjects (P<0.05). Pairwise comparison with the chi square test demonstrated that age, work experience, level of education, GHQ score and QEC score were significantly different between the two groups of with and without shoulder pain (P<0.05). However, based on the logistic regression analysis, only the GHQ score and age were significantly higher in subjects with shoulder pain compared to the no-pain group (P<0.05). Conclusions: Based on the results of this study general health status is important in non-specific shoulder pain and should be considered in evaluation of workers with shoulder pain.

991-996

Authors: Mohammad javad Mohammadi, Ahmad Reza Yari, Mohammad Fahiminia, Narges Paidari Shayesteh, Hamed Biglari, Zohreh Doosti, Mehdi Vosoughi, Yuesf Omidi Khaniabadi

The general attitude of the wastewater treatment process in our country is focus on the effluent quality and unfortunately waste sludge quality is rarely considered. Since multiple natural hazards and routes the contact with sludge requires a comprehensive approach to protect public health and the environment. The aim of this study is an assessment of sludge management and finding out the potential use of sludge for land application. The study was conducted in January to December 2014. samples were gathered in four seasons, winter, spring, summer and autumn from wastewater treatment plant in industrial park of Shokohieh of Qom province according to the instructions in standard method. Sampling was moments and composite. Numbers of Samples were 24 that 2 samples were captured in every month. Samples measured base on standard method for water wastewater examination references and then data was analyzed by SPSS and t-test. The results show that the Physical Parameters qualities and nutrients qualities in sludge are good. The Phosphate quality is not suitable. Based on t-test, the results show that levels of fecal coliform and total coliform in cold and warm seasons are different (P <0.001). This study showed that sludge ranked in Class B (EPA standard). The results of this study indicate that relationship between levels of parasite eggs and fecal coliforms is the best (pearson coefficient=0.995). The correlation coefficient levels of parasite eggs and total coliforms are 0.969. The mean values of elements are upper than the EPA standards, except lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium and zinc. This study shows that sludge ranked in Class B therefore is not suitable for various uses of sludge as: grass, playgrounds, for other uses, such as farmland and forest. Sludge has high levels of toxic metals, which are inapplicable due to the accumulative property.

1007-1016

Authors: Ahmad Jonidi Jafari, Roohollah Rostami, Gholamreza Ghainy

Bioaerosols are air pollutants that affect human health in various routes. They are characteristically diverse; such as bacteria, viruses and fungi, that everyone has different characteristics and effects, various solutions and technologies are studied or applied for their removal and inactivation. Regarding to lack of specific and integrated publications about the different air quality guidelines for bioaerosols and the methods and technologies, attending to approach the standards, purpose of this study was set on the development of the issue. The importance of presence of bioaerosols in breathing air and related standards and guidelines, also controlling technologies such as filtration, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, photo catalyst, temperature and electrostatic precipitators were surveyed in this study by using the scientific literature.Given the results, UV irradiation and photocatalytic methods are ineffective for allergens. In this way, filtration is unable for inactivation of the bioaerosols, then there is the threat that they can aerosolize again. Hence, these technologies individually cannot provide the air quality standards which have established for sensitive conditions such as operation rooms. Regarding the discussions, application of the methods that include collection and inactivation of the bioaerosols simultaneously, such as electrostatic precipitators, could be more effective in the likewise environments.

882-887

Authors: Somayyeh Dehghani, Abbas Rezaee, Fatemeh Hadadiyan

The main goal of this article is to study a bipolar electro-Fenton process using stainless steel mesh for removal of methylene blue (MB) as a model of textile dye from aqueous solution. The effect of operating parameters such as the applied current, supporting electrolyte, the type of electrode, H2O2 concentrations (1-10 mmol/L) and hydraulic retention time (5-60min) on the proposed electro-Fenton efficacy was evaluated. The optimum condition was obtained as follows: initial pH 3, the current density 1.4 mA/cm2, H2O2 10 mmol/L, Na2SO4 concentration 0.4 g/L as supporting electrolyte. The results show that the MB removal and COD reduction could be achieved 92% and 70%, respectively. The experimental results indicate that the bipolar electro-Fenton process using stainless steel mesh electrode is a promising wastewater treatment technique for removal of dye from aqueous solutions.

894-903

Authors: Morteza Hatami, Mitra Mohammadi Mohammadi, Reza Esmaeli, Mandana Mohammadi

Epidemiological studies conducted in the past two decades indicate that air pollution causes increase in cardiovascular, breathing and chronic bronchitis disorders and even causes cardiovascular mortality. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between meteorological parameters, air pollution and cardiovascular mortality in the city of Mashhad in 2014 by a time series model. Data on mortality from cardiovascular disease, meteorological parameters and air pollution in 2014 were gathered from Paradises organization, meteorology organization and pollutant monitoring center, respectively. Then the relationship between these parameters was analyzed using correlation coefficient, generalized linear regression, time series models and comparison of means. The results of the study showed that the highest rate of cardiovascular mortality related to Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and then PM2.5. So that each unit increase in SO2, NO2 and PM2.5 pollutants adds to the rate of cardiovascular mortality by 22.5, 2.9 and 0.69, respectively. Pressure, wind speed and rainfall have a significant association with mortality. So that each unit decrease in pressure and wind speed, increases the rate of cardiovascular mortality by 2.79 and 15.77, respectively. It was also found that in the case of one-unit increase in rainfall, the possibility of mortality from the mentioned disease goes up by 3.8 units. It was also found that one-year increase of the age increases the mortality caused by these diseases up to 0.57 percent. Furthermore, the highest rate of cardiovascular mortality related to cold periods of the year. Therefore, considering the growing trend of air pollution and its health effects on human health, performing actions and effective solutions is important in the field of controlling and reducing air pollution in Iranian metropolis including Mashhad.

911-917

Authors: Chenour Mawloudi, Aref Salehzadeh, Amir Hossein Zahirnia, Behroz Davari, Sara Ramezan Jamaat, Shahryar Mawludi

Phlebotomine sand flies are biological vectors of leishmaniasis in Iran and many other countries. In order to determine fauna and seasonal activity of sand flies, an investigation was carried out in Paveh County, Kermanshah Province, west of Iran. Using sticky traps sand flies collected in 5 sites of Paveh County from May to October of 2015. Activity of sand flies started in late April and ended in early October. Totally 2110 (71.1% male and 28.9% female) phlebotominae were collected from outdoors (64.6%) and indoors (35.4%) respectively. Twelve species in two genera were identified including: Phlebotomus alexandri, Ph. Sergenti, Ph. papatasi, Ph. major, Ph. tobbi, Ph. brevis, Sergentomyia sintoni, S. dentata, S. antennata, S. palestinensis, S. pawlowskyi and S. tiberiadis. Phlebotomus alexandri was predominant species in the region with 50% all of collected sand flies and Ph. brevis comprised only 0.04% of specimens. Due to documented report of seropositive cases of visceral leishmaniasis in Paveh County and presence of proven vectors in this area, further studies on epidemiological and entomological aspects of disease are recommended.

934-938

Authors: Hamidreza Nassehinia, Mehdi Kiani, Zaher Khazaei, Hasan Torabi, Malihe Sohrabivafa, Reza Beiranvand, Sajjad Rahimi Pordanjani

Contamination of some agricultural products by mycotoxins has exposed the human and animal health to serious concerns. Aflatoxin B1 is the most toxic type of aflatoxins, which is of the highest amount in different foods, including rice, among various types of aflatoxins. The present study was aimed to evaluate the amount of this toxicant in the consuming rice in Yazd city and investigate the effect of rice washing and soaking process on reduction of the mean concentration of aflatoxin B1. The present study was a descriptive-analytical one, in which 36 rice samples (18 domestic types and 18 foreign types of rice) were randomly selected from the rice distribution centers in Yazd city. The Standard No.6872 of the Institute of Standards & Industrial Research of Iran (ISIRI) was used for measuring the amount of aflatoxin B and G toxicants using HPLC (high pressure or performance liquid chromatography) method and purifying by immune affinity column. Analysis of the collected data was performed using SPSS-22 statistical software as well as the statistical methods of one-way ANOVA and Tukey HSD. The mean concentration of aflatoxin B1 in domestic and imported rice was measured equal to 1.461 and 0.508ng/g, respectively. The contamination rate in the imported rice was lower than that in the domestic one, while there was no significant relationship between them (p≥0.166); furthermore, the effect of soaking process on reduction of the toxicant amount in one and ten hours of soaking was statistically insignificant. There was no significant relationship between the effect of a single time of washing and reduction of the amount of toxicant; however, in case of three and five times of washing, the amount of toxicant exhibited a reduction of 68.2% and 98.7%, respectively, which was statistically significant (p<0.05). Results of the present study indicated that the rice washing process can significantly reduce the amount of aflatoxin B1, whereas the rice soaking process has no significant effect on reduction of the amount of toxicant.

758-766

Authors: Majid Kermani, Ahmad Jonidi Jafari, Roshanak Rezaei, Fazeleh sadat Sakhaei, Tannaz Sadat Kahe, Mohsen Dowlati

Air pollution in Tehran is considered as one of the most important factors threatening human health. High concentrations of pollutants have adverse effects on citizens and the environment. We calculated the relation between COPD and criteria air pollutants in Tehran, one of the most polluted cities in the world during 2005 to 2014. Hourly data of pollutants include SO2, O3 and NO2 were taken from the Tehran environmental protection agency and Air Quality Control Company. The AirQ2,2,3 model that proposed by the WHO, is used to health impact assessment of pollutants in terms of hospital admission due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Results indicated that the total cumulative number of cases due to hospital admission due to COPD in Tehran city from 2005 to 2014 for SO2, O3 and NO2 was 1806, 2941 and 2454 cases, respectively. The finding of this study showed that total mean of SO2, O3 and NO2 was higher than the standard concentration. By comparison with guideline and standards, annual concentration for SO2, O3 and NO2 was exceeded on standard level in during the study period. This study demonstrated that a high percentage of hospital admission due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease resulting from these pollutants could be due to the high average concentration in the air of Tehran during 2005 to 2014. So, authorities must apply the efforts and necessities actions based on comprehensive scientific researches to control air pollutants and abate their negative effects on human health.

775-780

Authors: Sallahuddin Panhwar, Rasool Bux Mahar, Asim Ali Abro, Muhammad Wajid Ijaz, Ghulam Shabir Solangi, Muhammad Muqeet

The coal mine excavation, transportation and coal cutting process are involved in hazards and risks that can result in fatalities, injuries and diseases, if these are not properly managed. This study has been undertaken for assessment of the safety and health issues amongst the mines workers. Convenience sampling technique was exercised upon 97 mine workers and interviewed with the help of set questionnaire. Personnel protection to workplace environment was monitored by using physical observation and scientific analysis. All parameters were measured against national and international protocols pertaining to labor law at coal mines. It has been determined that very high risk was persisting while mine excavation, coal cutting and transportation processes. Previous record of last five years was suggesting that 04 deaths happened due to roof fall, 03 fatalities occurred through suffocation by inhaling toxic gases, one causality happened via rope haulage pulley, and also one death due to stone fall down from mine shaft. 121 workers injured in different kinds of accidents within five years. It has been learnt from in-depth analysis that maximum of health risk and subsequent health damages are triggering due to lack of awareness, non-compliance of labor as well as mines laws. Thus, it is recommended that government should not allow coal mining contractors and companies, those which are failing in compliance with the suggested standards.

788-794

Authors: Seyyed Alireza Mousavi, Maryam Khashij, Davood Shahbazi

The quality of vision is essential that universally understood about the human condition in a learning environment. In this regard, lighting exceeds than standard level increased visual fatigue as reflection decrease by eye blinks. Against exposure to lower maximum allowed to involve Nystagmus, headaches and impaired vision as the most significant symptoms for students. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the total lighting condition (a combination of natural and artificial lighting) in primary schools in Nahavand city and compared it with the international standards. This study investigated average lighting using illumination meter DX200 INS in Nahavand’s primary schools. Results showed that mean lighting for whole classrooms was 415.7±166 lux. Also, ratio of window area/floor area (WA/FA) was less than the standard ratio only in 8 classes from 121 totals with the coefficient of correlation 0.56 between illuminances average and ratio of WA/FA. These findings might have practical implications for the implementation of desirable and standard lighting in schools for better practice of students.

804-811

Authors: Sima Nourbakhsh, Monavvar Afzal Aghaee, Elham Rahmanpour Salmani, Mohammad Naderi, Reihane Zangi, Reihane Feizi

Disposable Plastic Containers (DPCs) are widely in use in our daily life in many locations and times. Despite their great advantages including low cost, easy access, convenient transferring and no need to clean up, the indiscriminate use of them can be a concern, if they are not applied in the correct way of usage. This study aimed to assess the students' knowledge, and behavior regarding the correct use of DPCs. A questionnaire was designed using scientific literatures and health expert consultation. The resulting 26-item scale which included questions for sample characteristics (N=4), knowledge (N=19), and behavior (N=3) was approved in terms of reliability regarding Cronbach's alpha score of 0.8. Developed instrument was administered to a cross section of 200 students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in mid-2016. Data was analyzed using SPSS 16.0. Results indicated that 59.3% of the individuals had used DPCs more than once. Only 5.8% of the respondents were familiar with safety codes on the bottom of DPCs. The differences in the mean score of knowledge were not statistically significant in terms of gender, marriage status, level of education, and college. Considering total knowledge score of 18 on the designed scale, the maximum score of knowledge was observed in men (5.88±2.26), in married ones (6.11±2.55), in PhD students (6.5±2.39), and in dental college (6.31±2.65). According to the results, the students’ knowledge regarding the safe use of DPCs was very low (less than one third of the ideal knowledge) and their usage behavior was also relatively false.

824-834

Authors: Mohammad Ali Baghapour, Mohammad Reza Shooshtarian

In developing a specific WQI (Water Quality Index), many quality parameters are involved with different levels of importance. The impact of experts’ different opinions and viewpoints, current risks affecting their opinions, and plurality of the involved parameters double the significance of the issue. Hence, the current study tries to apply a consensus-based FOWA (Fuzzy Ordered Weighting Average) model as one of the most powerful and well-known Multi-Criteria Decision- Making (MCDM) techniques to determine the importance of the used parameters in the development of such WQIs which is shown with an example. This operator has provided the capability of modeling the risks in decision-making through applying the optimistic degree of stakeholders and their power coupled with the use of fuzzy numbers. Totally, 22 water quality parameters for drinking purposes were considered in this study. To determine the weight of each parameter, the viewpoints of 4 decision-making groups of experts were taken into account. After determining the final weights, to validate the use of each parameter in a potential WQI, consensus degrees of both the decision makers and the parameters are calculated. The highest and the lowest weight values, 0.999 and 0.073 respectively, were related to Hg and temperature. Regarding the type of consumption that was drinking, the parameters’ weights and ranks were consistent with their health impacts. Moreover, the decision makers’ highest and lowest consensus degrees were 0.9905 and 0.9669, respectively. Among the water quality parameters, temperature (with consensus degree of 0.9972) and Pb (with consensus degree of 0.9665), received the highest and lowest agreement with the decision-making group. This study indicated that the weight of parameters in determining water quality largely depends on the experts’ opinions and approaches. Moreover, using the FOWA model provides results accurate and closer- to-reality on the significance of each of the water quality parameters. Thus, using this operator can be a precise and appropriate method to determine the parameters’ weights and importance in order to develop specific WQIs for drinking, industrial, and agricultural purposes.

844-850

Authors: Mohammad Khandan, Alireza koohpaei, Hossein Hosseini Tabar

Organization and employees’ attitudes towards chemical risks are an important contributing factor for safe and unsafe behaviors. These risks should be controlled to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) level. The objective of this study was to assess chemicals risk perception, safety knowledge, attitude and their relationships with safe behavior among chemical workers in Iran. The study was a descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study. 209 workers from five chemical companies were selected in random and stratified sampling. Vinodkumar questionnaire as a demographic questionnaire and Smith-Jackson questionnaire as a safety behaviour questionnaire was utilized to assess safety knowledge, attitude, and chemicals risk perception. Collected data were analyzed utilizing T, ANOVA, and multiple-linear regression by SPSS V20. Males were in the majority (83.1%). Mean and standard deviation (SD) of age and work experience were 31.75±6.86 and 6.00±5.24 years, respectively. Also, mean and SD of risk perception, safe behavior, knowledge and attitude were 22.33±4.29, 22.12±2.88, 24.79±4.79 and 19.18±3.08, respectively. Gender and education were the most important demographic criteria in the case of difference in four variables. Also, correlation between safety behavior with risk perception and safety attitude was significant (p<0.05). According to the findings, development in employees’ knowledge and attitude through organizational plans and omission of cultural and organizational barriers against doing safety orders and risk perception enhancement would result in workers’ safer behaviors towards chemical risks; leading to occupational accidents and diseases reduction in industries.

859-865

Authors: Mehdi kangavari, Ali Avakh, Rouhollah Nourian, Masome Afshari, Maryam Afshari

Occupational accidents are one of important events in the world. Individual affecting factors on accidents are knowledge, attitude and perception of risk. So this study aimed to determine knowledge, attitude and safety performance in prevention of occupational accidents at one of Iran Khodro's piece making companies' workers. In this cross-sectional study, 212 workers from Mehrcam Pars Company selected by stratified random method at each working site in 2015. By simple random sampling, subjects were enrolled. Questionnaire was completed by workers through self-reporting. Questionnaire consisted of demographic and underlying information and questions about safety knowledge, attitude and performance in the workplace. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21 software. The average workers' age was 34.3 year with a standard deviation of 4.7%. 35.8% were not trained in terms of performing their job. 48.1% of participants had no history of injuries in site, but others reported suffers from mild to severe intensity. There was significant relationship between educational situation with attitude and safety performance. There was significant relationship between job experience with safety knowledge, attitude and performance. Age and workers' safety attitude was a predictive of safety performance. The results showed that there is significant relationship between safety knowledge, attitude and performance in the workplace with some variables. So in order to improve the overall situation of safety, some measures can be effective such as raising the knowledge of personnel, safety staff's participation management, balancing work and time.

873-877

Authors: Seyyed Alireza Mousavi, Maryam khashij, Sara Hamzeh

The published statistics show the increasing consumption of detergents and abstergents in recent decades. According to high utilization of these substances and their adverse consequences, the purpose of this study is evaluating the knowledge, attitude and performance of Kermanshah citizens about the hygienic, environmental and safety effects of using detergents and abstergents. This study is analytical and descriptive and the sample size was 386 persons from Kermanshah citizens in 2015. The methodology of this study is based on a self – made questionnaire and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.7. The SPSS – 20 was used for analyzing the data. 42.44% of them have high knowledge and 49% - 9% of them have respectively average and poor knowledge. 81.75% of participants have a positive attitude and 18.25% of them have negative one. Also 61.5% of participants have a proper performance and 38.5% of them don’t have a proper performance. There was a positive and significant relation between knowledge based on attitude (r=0.03) and performance (r=0.2). And also it was found that there is a direct correlation between attitude and performance (r=0.04). Since 38.5% of participants had poor performance and this is not satisfactory, it is necessary to instruct and inform people continuously about using detergents and abstergents correctly for better and more efficient performance.