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The global morbidity and mortality associated with asthma have been dramatically raised. We aimed to determine the prevalence of asthma symptoms in northwestern Iran and identify the potential risk...

Exposure to airborne particulate matter (PM) can be considered as an important risk factor for human health. Some cytokines have been recognized as the biomarkers of exposure to air pollution. Experimental studies indicate that PM exposure could be associated with inflammation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the exposure to air PM is associated with biomarkers of inflammation. The specific aim of this study was to determine the correlation between airborne PM levels and IL-6 and TNF-α as airway inflammation biomarkers among two groups of late adolescents in northwest of Iran. This study included 46 subjects, comprising 23 asthmatic subjects and 23 non-asthmatic persons. Environmental PM (PM

Particulate matter (PM) as the carcinogenic air pollutants can lead to aggravated health outcomes. Epidemiological studies demonstrated that PM can be engaged in different diseases such as cardiovascular, respiratory and cancer. The in vitro secretion of proinflammatory cytokines by human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) has been used to assess the effects of PM with an aerodynamic diameter

This study examined the association between particulate matter from anthropogenic and natural sources and inflammatory biomarkers, including hs-CRP, IL-6, sTNF-RII, and WBCs, in two groups of healthy young subjects. We followed up subjects of two panels (16 to 22 years old), including 22 subjects selected from the urban area (Tehran city) with high-level pollution background and 22 subjects selected from the rural area (Ahmadabad) with low-level pollution background. In each group, we collected 4 times blood samples in various air pollution conditions, In the subjects of the urban group, there was a substantial difference (p 0.05) between inversion days and cold season control days, and between dust storm days and warm season control days for concentrations of hs-CRP, IL-6, and WBCs biomarkers. In the subjects of the rural group, a significant difference could be detected in the concentration of hs-CRP, IL-6, and WBCs biomarkers (p 0.05) between inversion days and cold season control days, and between dust storm and warm control days. We found that the difference in concentrations of hs-CRP, IL-6, and WBCs biomarkers between dust storm days and warm control conditions in the rural group were higher than the difference in inversion and cold control conditions, which can be attributed to low background air pollution in the rural area. In the urban area, the health effect of anthropogenic sources of PM is higher than the dust storm condition, which can be attributed to the stronger effect of anthropogenic pollution effect.

Scientists have considered epigenetic modifications as a possible mechanism to deal with adverse effects of air pollution. This study aimed to compare the effect of PM10 (PM with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 μm) from dust storm and inversion conditions on in vitro global methylation in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). PM10 was sampled in Tehran, Iran, at a point impacted with dust storm and inversion. PM toxicity was determined using the MTT assay. PBMCs were extracted from whole blood of healthy males and treated separately with a mixture of pooled PM10 from inversion and dusty conditions at concentrations of 50–300 μg/mL for 4 h. Untreated cells were used as the negative control. Moreover, 5-methylsytosine (%5-mC) and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (%5-hmC) were measured by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Daily average PM10 concentrations in dusty and inversion days were 348.40 and 220.54 μg/m3, respectively. The mean of %5-mC (2.04 ± 1.49%) was estimated 12 times more than that of %5-hmC (0.17 ± 0.11%). PM10 resulting from the both sources caused DNA hypomethylation; however, this effect from inversion (median = 3%, IQR = 2.4%) was found to be significantly more than that from dust storm (median = 1.1%, IQR = 1.38%). Moreover, particles increased %5-hmC caused by PM10, which was significantly greater when resulting from inversion (0.23 ± 0.1%) than from dust storm (0.12 ± 0.09%). Furthermore, %5-mC and %5-hmC were significantly different at different PM10 concentrations (50–300 μg/mL) so that a significant difference was observed between %5-mC and %5-hmC at extreme concentrations. Results showed that PM10 from inversion caused a significantly more global methylation than that from dust storm. It can be concluded that measurement of 5-mC and 5-hmC as epigenetic modifications in environmental studies of DNA methylation can be a good procedure to determine health effects related to PM10 exposure.

The particulate matter has become a serious health problem in some large cities in the world. These particles are a complex mixture of chemical compounds which change based on location and time and, consequently, can cause different health-related effects. The exact mechanism of the effect of these particles is not yet known for certain. However, it seems that numerous mechanisms through the production of ROS and, eventually, DNA destruction, which are related to a wide range of diseases, are among the causes of particles’ health-related effects. The present study is aimed to evaluate and compare the genotoxicity potential of particles collected in Tehran, Iran, in urban and rural regions during spring and autumn as well as dusty and inversion conditions. These effects were examined using the comet assay on human pulmonary epithelial cells (A549). Results showed that all the particles had the potential for genotoxicity at the concentration used in this study (75,150 and 300 μg/ml). Moreover, DNA destruction changed with season, site, and even dusty and inversion atmospheric conditions. These changes mostly belonged to urban particles. In general, urban particles in autumn and, specifically, on days with inversion had higher genotoxicity (p

Although ambient air pollution has been linked to reduced lung function in healthy students, longitudinal studies that compare the response of asthmatic and healthy adolescents are lacking. To evaluate lung function responses to short-term ambient air particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5, and PM1) levels, we conducted a study on high school students aged 15–18 years. The aim of this study was to assess effects of acute exposure to ambient air particulate matter (PM) on lung function in healthy and asthmatic late adolescents. We examined associations of lung function indices and ambient PM levels in 23 asthmatic and 23 healthy students. Paired-samples T test was used to evaluate the association of exposure to airborne PM concentrations with lung function test results (FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC, and FEF25–75). We observed negative impact of exposure to an increased concentration of ambient air PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 on lung function parameters of asthmatic and healthy late adolescents. These findings are consistent with other similar short-term studies which have confirmed the adverse effect of PM air pollution. These associations were stronger in asthmatic subjects compared with those in healthy ones. There are significant adverse effects of ambient air PM on pulmonary function of adolescents, especially asthmatics.

The development and design of adsorbents with high adsorption performance is an effective method of removing p -Cresol from effluent for environmental protection. Therefore, an Al 2 O 3 coated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) composite for adsorption of p -Cresol from aqueous solution was synthesized. The p -Cresol concentration was determined by estimating the absorbance of the sample solution on a DR5000 UV/vis spectrophotometer. Box–Behanken design (BBD) was involved in the optimization of p -Cresol adsorption upon Al 2 O 3 coated MWNTs adsorbent against the process parameters time, pH and adsorbent dose. The effects of these factors were studied in the ranges 5–40 min, 4–10, and 0.2–2 g L −1 , respectively. The lack of fit obtained for this model was 0.357 which confirmed that the model is highly significant and the experiments are accurate and reliable. The results showed that adsorption isotherms fit well with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model and Q max was calculated to be 54.05 mg/g. Our results demonstrate that Al 2 O 3 coated MWNTs has the potential to be used as an effective adsorbent for the rapid uptake of p -Cresol from aqueous solutions.

The aim of this study is to survey the PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 concentrations in rural and urban areas in Tehran province during cold, warm and dust storm days from December 22, 2016 to June 5, 2017 u...

Disinfection by-products are compounds occurring in drinking water as a result of reactions between disinfectants and impurities in raw water, and their occurrence has been a public health concern for the last four decades. Haloacetic acids (HAAs) are one of the major by-products of chlorination. The concentration and variation of HAAs was monitored in 540 samples taken from tap water in six water and wastewater districts of Tehran, Iran. Seasonal variation indicated that natural organic matter and HAA levels were much higher in the spring and fall seasons. The concentrations of HAAs in drinking water samples varied with water sources. They were higher in drinking water obtained from surface water. In this study, the analysis method of human health risk assessment with regard to exposure to HAAs by drinking water in Tehran was based on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) guideline. It was found from these studies that the risk to human health appears to be negligible. © 2017 IWA Publishing.

Kermanshah as fairly important industrial city suffered from air pollution specially dust storm during the recent decade. The main purpose of this study was to compare quantitatively the health impacts of PM10 on citizens of Kermanshah city during two successive years. The hourly data of PM10 was taken from Kermanshah Environmental Protection Agency (KEPA) which was measured by Beta attenuation method. We used a health effect model for quantification which was based on baseline incidence (BI), relative risk (RR) and attributable proportion (AP). Our findings showed that 7.6, 11, 15.1, 13.5 and 7.6 percent of total mortality (TM), cardiovascular mortality (CM), respiratory mortality (RM), hospital admission respiratory disease (HARD) and hospital admission cardiovascular disease (HACD) were attributable to short term exposure to PM10, respectively in 2011. With regarding to two years in view of short term health effects, we observed that 20 percent reduction occurred in 2012 compared with 2011. We also concluded that 48 and 12 percent of all health impacts were attributed to occurrence of Middle East Dust (MED) storms during 2011 and 2012, respectively.

Airborne particulate matter is associated with increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between air pollution conditions and MDA, vWF, and fibrinogen markers in the blood of two panels of healthy young individuals in an urban area in Tehran city with a high air pollution background and another group was living in a rural area (Ahmad Abad Mostofi), with a low air pollution background. In each group, 4 blood samples were taken as follows: one in inversion days, the second in winter, but during the existence of normal condition in terms of air pollution, the third sample in the spring during the normal condition in terms of air pollution and the fourth sample during the dust storm conditions. In the urban and rural groups, there was a significant difference between the concentration of MDA, vWF, fibrinogen between inversion and cold season control conditions, and between dust storm conditions and warm season control conditions (p 0.05). The results showed that the association of dust storm condition on the measured biomarkers was stronger than the inversion condition, which health consideration in the dust conditions be taken into account similar to the inversion conditions.

This study was performed to investigate the concentration and the health risk of metal(loid)s, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and Water-soluble ions in PM10 during cold and warm seasons in two different stations, rural and an urban area at Tehran. The characterization of the metal(loid)s, PAHs and Water-soluble ions associated to the PM10 were carried out by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES), gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and ion chromatography (IC), respectively. The average concentrations of ambient PM10 on cold and warm seasons were 79.6 and 67.9 μg/m3 in urban area and 57.3 and 58.8 μg/m3 in rural area, respectively. The elements from crustal source (Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Al, Si, Fe and Ti) were the major compositions for PM10 in warm season, and NO 3 − and SO42− were major component of PM10 in cold season at both sites. The mean concentrations of total PAHs were found to be 103.8 ± 81.2 and 67.1 ± 28.1 ng/m3 on cold and warm seasons for the urban area, and 31.85 ± 18.91 and 26.61 ± 15.72 ng/m3 in cold and warm seasons for the rural area, were indicative of the significance of mobile sources in Tehran. Results from this study indicate that for both sites, the carcinogenic risk caused by inhalation pathway PM10-bound PAHs exceeded the acceptable level of world health organization safe limits, indicating the need for more investigation to reducing potential carcinogenic risk.

Particulate matter (PM) as the carcinogenic air pollutants can lead to aggravated health outcomes. Epidemiological studies demonstrated that PM can be engaged in different diseases such as cardiovascular, respiratory and cancer. The in vitro secretion of proinflammatory cytokines by human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) has been used to assess the effects of PM with an aerodynamic diameter

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. Figure 6 caption should be "The light microscopic image (a) and transmission electron microscopic image (b) of A549 cell after 24 h of exposure to PM10 (150 μg/ml).

The particulate matter has become a serious health problem in some large cities in the world. These particles are a complex mixture of chemical compounds which change based on location and time and, consequently, can cause different health-related effects. The exact mechanism of the effect of these particles is not yet known for certain. However, it seems that numerous mechanisms through the production of ROS and, eventually, DNA destruction, which are related to a wide range of diseases, are among the causes of particles' health-related effects. The present study is aimed to evaluate and compare the genotoxicity potential of particles collected in Tehran, Iran, in urban and rural regions during spring and autumn as well as dusty and inversion conditions. These effects were examined using the comet assay on human pulmonary epithelial cells (A549). Results showed that all the particles had the potential for genotoxicity at the concentration used in this study (75,150 and 300 μg/ml). Moreover, DNA destruction changed with season, site, and even dusty and inversion atmospheric conditions. These changes mostly belonged to urban particles. In general, urban particles in autumn and, specifically, on days with inversion had higher genotoxicity (p 0.01). Difference was observed between dusty and regular days so that regular days were more potent (p 0.05). A strong correlation was observed between the effects of most PAH compounds and other metals such as Cr, Co, Cd, Mn, As, and also SO

Response surface methodology involving Box–Behnken design was used to evaluate the effects of three operating variables: pH, initial concentration of phosphorus, and adsorbent dosage on biosorption of phosphorus by modified Lemna minor by lab-scale batch study. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed pH, initial phosphorus concentration, interaction of phosphorus and adsorbent dose and the second-order effect of pH have values of “Prob. > F” less than 0.0500 indicating that model terms are significant for the biosorption of phosphorus. Optimum operational conditions for maximizing phosphorus biosorption were achieved at pH 4.8, initial phosphorus concentration of 19 mg/L and adsorbent dosage of 5.15 g/L. Under optimal value of parameters, high biosorption (89.2%) was obtained for phosphorus. Langmuir with 0.99 consistencies fitted better than Temkin, or Freundlich models. The maximum adsorption capacity of phosphorus was determined as 3.6 mg/g. Pseudo-second-order kinetic model exhibited the highest c...

This study reports on the chemical composition of rainwater collected at three ground sites with varying degrees of pollution in Ahvaz, Iran, between January 2014 and February 2015. A total of 24 rainwater samples were analyzed for pH and concentrations of trace elements (Fe, Al, Pb, and Cd) and major ions (Na+, NH4+, Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3-, NO3-, Cl- and SO42-). Principle Component Analysis (PCA) was used to identify sources of the measured species. The equivalent concentration of the components followed the order of Ca2+ > SO42- > HCO3- > NH4+ > Cl- > Na+ > NO3- > Mg2+. The average pH of the rainwater samples was 6, and only three events exhibited acidic conditions below a pH of 5.6. The lowest and the highest average pH values were observed in the high traffic area (5.96) and industrial area (6.54), respectively. The highest and lowest Ca2+ levels were observed in the industrial and high traffic areas, respectively. Na+, Mg2+, and SO42- exhibited their highest and lowest concentrations in the industrial and high traffic areas, respectively. 70.36% of the total variance was due to anthropogenic species (Ca2+, SO42-, Mg2+, NO3-, Cl-), soil particles (Cl-, Na+, and HCO3-), and biomass burning (NH4+, pH). The results of this study show that local anthropogenic sources and Middle Eastern Dust (MED) storms affect the rainwater chemistry strongly, which the latter stems from the Arabian Peninsula, Kuwait, Iraq, and some parts of Iran.

Air pollution in cities is a serious environmental problem especially in the developing countries. We examined the associations between gaseous pollutants and hospitalizations for chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) among people living in Tabriz, a city in north western of Iran. We used the approach proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) using the AirQ 2.2.3 software developed by the WHO European Center for Environment and Health, Bilthoven Division. To assess human exposure and health effect, data were used for ozone as a1h average; for nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide as daily average concentrations. The association between air pollution and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was assessed using AirQ 2.2.3 model. The results of this study showed that 3 % (95 % CI 1.2-4.8 %) of HA COPD were attributed to O3 concentrations over 10 μg/m(3). Also, 0.9 % (95 % CI 0.1-2.2 %) and 0.4 % (95 % CI 0-1.1 %) of HA COPD were attributed to NO2 and SO2 concentrations over 10 μg/m(3), respectively. For every 10 μg/m(3) increase in O3, NO2, and SO2 concentrations, the risk of HA COPD increase to about 0.58, 0.38, and 0.44 %, respectively. We found significant positive associations between the levels of all air pollution and hospital admissions COPD. Otherwise, O3, NO2, and SO2 have a significant impact on COPD hospitalization.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an important disease worldwide characterized by chronically poor airflow. The economic burden of COPD on any society can be enormous if not managed. We applied the approach proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) using the AirQ2.2.3 software developed by the WHO European Center for Environment and Health on air pollutants in Tabriz (Iran) (2011-2012 year). A 1h average of concentrations of ozone (O3), daily average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) were used to assess human exposure and health effect in terms of attributable proportion of the health outcome and annual number of excess cases of Hospital Admissions for COPD (HA COPD). The results of this study showed that 2% (95% CI: 0.8-3.1%) of HA COPD were attributed to O3 concentrations over 10 μg/m(3). In addition, 0.7 % (95% CI: 0.1-1.8%) and 0.5% (95% CI: 0-1%) of HA COPD were attributed to NO2 and SO2 concentrations over 10 μg/m(3) respectively. In this study, we have shown that O3, NO2 and SO2 have a significant impact on COPD hospitalization. Given these results the policy decisions are needed in order to reduce the chronic pulmonary diseases caused by air pollution and furthermore better quantification studies are recommended.

level, and H 2 O 2 presence were also examined. Results: The results showed that the optimum catalyst dose was found to be 50 mg/L. The maximum rate of decolorization was obtained in acidic condition at pH 5 and the initial dye concentration of 10 mg/L. Photodegradation of C.I. Sulphur Red 14 increased by addition of proper dose of hydrogen peroxide. Mineralization of the dye was also investigated as Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) measurements showed increase in the COD removal with increase in decolorization rate. Conclusions: The UV/ZnO system has been found an effective process with 90.2% COD removal and 95.6% dye removal after 50 minutes treatment.

Evaluating of health status and explore the challenges of health problems that threaten human life following disasters and major earthquakes providing windows of opportunities for health care providers in future planning of disasters. The main purpose of this report was to survey the environmental sanitation statues after 200 days of the affected populations in earthquakes of East Azerbaijan, northwestern of Iran, 2012. The survey was carried out in earthquake zones 200 days after the occurrence of the earthquake. A single stage cluster sampling from among 95 villages damaged in the earthquake of 2012 East Azerbaijan of three towns Ahar, Varzeghan and Heris were selected. The data were collected with questionnaire, site visits and evaluation of water and sanitation. In a twin Earthquake, East Azerbaijan province that 399 villages of Ahar, Varzeghan, Heris, Tabriz and Kaleibar cities were affected and 356 (89.2 %) villages were destroyed between 30-100%. Evaluation of water and sanitation infrastructure after 200 days, shown that only half of these villages consumed healthy water with high coverage and adequate. Half of the villages in 200 days after the earthquake were covered safe drinking water (treated drinking water). The bacteriological quality of drinking-water supply of the affected area was assessed in randomly collected 146 samples from this region and ten (6.8%) reported as unsuitable. Solid waste management facilities in residents have not been acceptable that affect public health. Solid waste disposal was done by district residents (cooperation rural residents) 68.4%, 36.8% and 76.3% in Ahar, Varzeghan and Heris, respectively. Overall, the impact of infectious and communicable diseases after Earthquake was reported 42.1% (16 villages) in the Varzeghan. The lack of geographical view with a focus in mountainous and rural areas, partial support and dispersion of earthquake-stricken people in affected villages and lack of participatory need assessment and pre-crisis coordination among various organizations led to negative effects of environmental factors on health status in villages. Providing intra-sector coordination for waste management with a sanitary disposal of sewage and detection hazardous materials aftermath as well as immediate measurements in the water supply system are necessary for health promotion of the affected population in the disaster region.

Olive mill wastewater is considered as one of the most polluting effluents of the food industry and constitutes a source of important environmental problems. In this study, the removal of pollutants (chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), polyphenols, turbidity, color, total suspended solids (TSS), and oil and grease) from olive oil mill processing wastewater by peroxi-electrocoagulation/electrooxidation-electroflotation process with bipolar aluminum electrodes was evaluated using a pilot continuous reactor. In the electrochemical unit, aluminum (Al), stainless steel, and RuO2/Ti plates were used. The effects of pH, hydrogen peroxide doses, current density, NaCl concentrations, and reaction times were studied. Under optimal conditions of pH 4, current density of 40 mA/m2, 1000 mg/L H2O2, 1 g/L NaCl, and 30-min reaction time, the peroxi-electrochemical method yielded very effective removal of organic pollution from the olive mill wastewater diluted four times. The treatment process reduced COD by 96 %, BOD5 by 93.6 %, total, polyphenols by 94.4 %, color by 91.4 %, turbidity by 88.7, suspended solids by 97 % and oil and grease by 97.1 %. The biodegradability index (BOD5/COD) increased from 0.29 to 0.46. Therefore, the peroxi-electrocoagulation/electrooxidation-electroflotation process is considered as an effective and feasible process for pre-treating olive mill wastewater, making possible a post-treatment of the effluent in a biological system.

Air pollution in cities is a serious environmental problem especially in the developing countries. We examined the associations between gaseous pollutants and hospitalizations for chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) among people living in Tabriz, a city in north western of Iran. We used the approach proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) using the AirQ 2.2.3 software developed by the WHO European Center for Environment and Health, Bilthoven Division. To assess human exposure and health effect, data were used for ozone as a1h average; for nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide as daily average concentrations. The association between air pollution and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was assessed using AirQ 2.2.3 model. The results of this study showed that 3 % (95 % CI 1.2-4.8 %) of HA COPD were attributed to O3 concentrations over 10 μg/m(3). Also, 0.9 % (95 % CI 0.1-2.2 %) and 0.4 % (95 % CI 0-1.1 %) of HA COPD were attributed to NO2 and SO2 concentrations over 10 μg/m(3), respectively. For every 10 μg/m(3) increase in O3, NO2, and SO2 concentrations, the risk of HA COPD increase to about 0.58, 0.38, and 0.44 %, respectively. We found significant positive associations between the levels of all air pollution and hospital admissions COPD. Otherwise, O3, NO2, and SO2 have a significant impact on COPD hospitalization.