2023 CiteScore: 1.9
eISSN: 2476-3071
Editor-in-Chief:
Ramin Nabizadeh Nodehi, Ph.D.
Vol 3 No 4 (2018): Autumn 2018
Original Research
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Introduction: Air pollution is one of the environmental concerns of many countries, including Iran. One of the most common and effective ways to explain the importance of this issue is to perform research and publish scientific articles. Therefore, this study aimed to monitor scientific publications on air pollution in the specialized environmental health journals of Iran within the last ten years.
Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on all articles published in the field of air pollution in five specialized environmental health journals within 10 years (2008-2017). Data were collected using a checklist in accordance with the research objectives. The variables in the checklist were selected based on the recommended items for writing medical articles by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). The obtained data was analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Results: Reviewing 1276 articles in 102 issues of the 5 specialized environmental health journals showed that 11.6 % of articles were published in the field of air pollution. The trend in air pollution researches over the past decade was a slow and growing trend. Studying articles related to air pollution showed that the highest proportion of articles (45.3 %) in this field were related to measuring the organic matter. The analysis of the content of the articles showed that, from the research methodology point of view, most articles (24.3 %) were performed by laboratory method.
Conclusion: Due to the widespread nature of air pollution issue in many cities of Iran and other countries in recent years and its destructive effects on human and other creatures, it is expected to focus and perform more researches on this issue. Hence, health policymakers should place the air pollution issue at a higher priority, and also it would be useful for researchers, especially graduate students, to focus on research in this area, drawing international cooperation. -
Introduction: Air pollution is one of the important issues in developing countries, due to increased population and industrialization. In this research, the spatial distribution of ambient air concentration such as CO, NO2, SO2, PM2.5, PM10, O3 and Air quality Index (AQI) in Tehran city in 2015 were evaluated using different deterministic ( inverse distance weighted, local polynomial, global polynomial, radial basis functions) and geostatistical (Kriging, Cokriging) methods.
Materials and methods: Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Mean Error (ME) using cross-evaluation methods were used to control the accuracy of the interpolation. To find the secondary variables in the cokriging method, the Pearson coefficient of each pollutant was calculated with another pollutant.
Results: The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showed that all data followed normal distribution. Also the results indicated that in most cases, geostatistical methods were the best methods to estimate ambient air concentration. Finally, after selecting the best interpolation method, the zoning map of the pollutant was drawn with ArcGIS.
Conclusion: The results of 71 methods showed that in most cases, the geostatistical method is better than the deterministic method. -
Introduction: Noise pollution has become one of the most serious environmental issues in the large cities of Iran. Although several studies have been conducted on noise pollution in different Iranian cities, to date no such study has been done in Shiraz, a city of roughly 1,250,000. Therefore, the aim of this study was to provide a map of noise pollution in Shiraz and compare the levels of noise pollution in different parts of the city.
Materials and methods: For this study, 33 areas were selected in Shiraz. The level of noise pollution was measured at the hours of 008:00, 13:00, 18:00 and 22:00. Then, with the aid of ANOVA, the level of noise pollution in each area was compared to those of other areas of the city. Finally, with the help of ArcView GIS, noise pollution maps of Shiraz were prepared.
Results: The results of this study showed that the average noise pollution of Shiraz at the hours of 08:00, 13:00, 18:00 and 22:00 was 58.55, 59.56, 61.1 and 61.07 dB, respectively. On Mondays and Wednesdays, averaging 61.4 and 62 dB, respectively, the highest noise pollution was found in the city of Shiraz. This city’s lowest noise pollution occurred on Friday, Iran’s weekend and day of religious observance, with an average of 56 dB.
Conclusion: Some parts of Shiraz at 13:00, 18:00, and 22:00 had higher noise pollution (70 dB). This study was carried out in late summer 2018, so it is recommended that such studies be conducted in other seasons. The results of this study can be used to create a comprehensive noise pollution management plan in Shiraz. -
Introduction: People are constantly exposed to radiation from natural and artificial sources of radiation. Radon is one of the natural radiation sources that its concentration in very high in some part of the world. The presence of radon gas in the air can increase the risk of lung cancer. In this study, the level of indoor radon in dwellings of Isfahan city was surveyed. It should be mentioned that an active alpha GUARD instrument was used to measure radon concentration. All of the measurments took place during the winter and spring of 2018.
Materials and methods: In the present survey, 51 residential/commercial buildings were considered to radon gas monitoring based on the population distribution on 15 urban areas and the population of each area and technical possibilities. In each residential/commercial buildings, sampling was carried out at different floors of the building. A professional radon monitoring device (Alpha GUARD PQ2000 PRO) was used to measure indoor radon gas concentration.
Results: The Results of measuring were shown that the radon concentration in the residential/commercial buildings varied from 3 to 251 Bq / m3, with a mean value of 28.57 ± 39.38 Bq / m3. The average annual effective dose received by the residents of the studied area was estimated to be 0.49 mSv. The results showed a significant difference between the average radon concentration in different floors and the different ventilation of the building, higher values in the lower floors and weaker ventilation.
Conclusion: Indoor radon concentration in 4 % of the building was determined to be higher than the limit (100 Bq / m3) recommended by the World Health Organization. -
Introduction: Thousandths dangerous chemicals are found in cigarette smoke. Each day millions cigarettes are consumed and its smoke is emitted in the atmosphere. Although several studies have been carried out on cigarette smoke, there is no reliable emission factor for pollutants emitted from burning cigarette. The aim of this study is to prepare four emission factors to estimate amount of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, total hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides per each cigarette.
Materials and methods: In this study a set of experiments was designed to achieve this aim. Different brands of cigarettes were prepared and then they was burned by a vacuum pump. Their cigarettes smoke was analyzed by a gas analyzer to find the concentration of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, total hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides in the cigarettes smoke. Next, the average emission factor for complete burning of a cigarette was calculated.
Results: High amount of pollutants could be found in cigarette smoke. The results revealed that 0.01 mg of hydrocarbons, 0.13 mg of carbon monoxide, 0.5 mg of carbon dioxide and 0.01 mg of nitrogen oxides are emitted during complete burning of each cigarette.
Conclusion: If the number of consumed cigarettes was available, these emission factors can be used to understand the share of cigarette smoke in air pollution of large cities to understand whether cigarette consumption is effective on air pollution. -
Introduction: The importance of air quality and paying attention to what we breathe have been valuable always. So that air pollution is one of the key environmental issues in urban communities. Several studies show that the potential effects of air pollution on human health include increased mortality and changes in cardiovascular and respiratory functions.
Materials and methods: The population of this study was people in 22 districts of Tehran megacity. The questionnaires were placed at the municipality centers of 22 districts and randomly completed by people who came to the center. Questions included the importance of air pollution, the comparison of air quality with last year, the main sources of air pollution, the problems created by air pollution, the quality of informing system, as well as questions about their satisfaction about government’s actions on air pollution control plans. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 24.
Results: 84.14 % of the participants stated that air pollution is important to them and has a negative influence on their lives. Also, most of them were not satisfied with the measures taken and expected that actions would be better to reduce air pollution. 91.10 % of the participants considered cars as the main causes of air pollution. Also, 68.22 % of people believed that air pollution had a significant negative impact on their quality of life.
Conclusion: Most people are willing to live at a higher cost but a less polluted environment, while more of them are not well aware of their role in reducing air pollution. Moreover further education should be provided on the role of people in reducing air pollution. Additionally, the government must deal with air pollutants and take serious measures.
