Economic evaluation of hazardous healthcare waste treatment systems.

The cost estimation and assessment of healthcare waste treatment systems (HCWTSs) for preventing financial and environmental damage are essential. This work reports economic analyses of treatment of hazardous-infectious waste based on WHO approach in HCWTS of 43 hospitals in Tehran, Iran. The waste generation rate for total hospital waste in 43 HCWTS was 4.

Occurrence and removal of psychiatric pharmaceuticals in the Tehran South Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Psychiatric drugs released by humans in wastewater have received more attention because of their potential risks for aquatic organisms. In this study, the occurrence of the two most common groups of psychiatric drugs (sedatives-hypnotics-anxiolytics and antidepressants) were evaluated in the Tehran South Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant. All the target sedatives-hypnotics-anxiolytics (alprazolam, phenobarbital, and thioridazine) and antidepressants (fluoxetine, citalopram, sertraline, and venlafaxine) were observed in influent and secondary clarification (SC) effluent.

Characteristics and health effects of particulate matter emitted from a waste sorting plant.

Solid waste components can be recycled in waste paper and cardboard sorting plants (WPCSP) through a multistep process. This work collected 15 samples every six days from each of the 9 points selected to study the processes taking place in a WPCSP (135 particulate matter samples total). Examining the concentration and size fraction of particulate matter (i.

Characteristics and assessing biological risks of airborne bacteria in waste sorting plant.

Examining the concentration and types of airborne bacteria in waste paper and cardboard sorting plants (WPCSP) is an urgent matter to inform policy makers about the health impacts on exposed workers. Herein, we collected 20 samples at 9 points of a WPCSP every 6 winter days, and found that the most abundant airborne bacteria were positively and negatively correlated to relative humidity and temperature, respectively. The most abundant airborne bacteria (in units of CFU m) were: Staphylococcus sp.

Environmental risk assessments of multiclass pharmaceutical active compounds: selection of high priority concern pharmaceuticals using entropy-utility functions.

This research aimed to identify high-risk pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) by analyzing occurrence (O), persistence (P), bioaccumulation (B), and toxicity (T) of 62 drugs which are widely used in Iran. A comprehensive approach was taken in risk assessment of the selected PhACs and in their prioritization using multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) such as utility functions and principal component analysis (PCA). In practice, assigning weight to each criterion (i.

Assessment of co-composting of sewage sludge, woodchips, and sawdust: feedstock quality and design and compilation of computational model.

Composting process of sewage sludge requires a preprocessing step in order to prepare the appropriate mixture of dewatered sludge (Xs) with amendment (Xa), bulking agent (Xb), and/or recycled materials (Xr). This research aimed to develop a novel mathematical model for finding an optimal mixture ratio of dewatered sludge with the aforementioned influencing elements on co-composting process. Seven feasible scenarios were presented and the best one was selected in viewpoint of technical and economic perspectives.

Dataset on specifications, carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk of volatile organic compounds during recycling paper and cardboard.

Emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were studied during paper and cardboard recycling from a paper and cardboard solid waste recycling factory (PCSWRF). Data are summarized in this article for the following quantities for a PCSWRF during the winter in Tehran, Iran: VOC concentrations (μg m), the percentage of detected VOCs, exposure indices (E) of individual and total VOCs (TVOCs), inhalation lifetime cancer risk (LTCR) of VOCs, the hazard quotient (HQ) of VOCs, sensitivity analysis (SA) for VOC exposure in different age groups (birth to <81), and Spearman's rank correlation coefficients (r) between VOC concentrations and meteorological parameters. For more insight please see "Characteristics and Health Effects of Volatile Organic Compound Emissions during Paper and Cardboard Recycling"[1], https://doi.

Comparative study of predicting hospital solid waste generation using multiple linear regression and artificial intelligence.

Purpose: A successful hospital solid waste (HSW) management needs an accurate estimation of waste generation rates. The conventional regression methods upon increasing the number of input variables hardly can predict the HSW generation rate and require more complex modeling. In return, application of machine learning methods seems to be able to increase the power of predicting the produced wastes.

An innovative swimming pool water quality index (SPWQI) to monitor and evaluate the pools: design and compilation of computational model.

This research aimed to develop an index known as swimming pool water quality index (SPWQI) for quantifying the water pollution potential. The index is a quantitative tool to show the data on the water quality of swimming pools consistently. It makes summarizing the complex data on water quality possible and paves the way for its communication to the general public and decision makers.

A case study of BTEX characteristics and health effects by major point sources of pollution during winter in Iran.

This study characterized spatio-temporal variations in the concentration of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) compounds in the vicinity of gas and compressed natural gas (CNG) stations in Tehran, Iran. Health risk assessment (HRA) was computed using Monte Carlo simulations (MCS) for evaluating inhalation lifetime cancer risk (LTCR), the hazard quotient (HQ), and sensitivity analysis (SA) for BTEX exposure in different age groups (birth to <81) and as a function of distance (0-250 m) from the center of the stations. For all monitoring stations, the average values of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene in winter were 466.