Dust mitigation by the application of treated sewage effluent (TSE) in Iran.

Considering the presence of 274 dusty days in 2021 in Zabol city, Iran, the present study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of using treated sewage effluent (TSE) for dust mitigation with natural methods of increasing land cover. Hence, first of all, the identification of sewage treatment facilities along with the volume and chemical status was carried out and compared to the various national and international legislation. Then, field investigation on land use and land cover, along with literature review on dust origins, sand detachment areas, and sand corridors in the study area will be assisted for optimal area suggestion. Note that, in the present study it was assumed that the application of TSE for wetting the surface to vegetation restoration resulted in wind erosion control in critical foci. The results showed that, so far, a total of 39,000 m3/day could be treated, in the whole study area. The TSE volume calculated based on two scenarios consisting, (1) data obtained from the related organization, and (2) based the capacity of the wastewater plant is 2.8 and 5.1 mcm/year, respectively. Additionally, the study of TSE quality and its comparison to various regulation such as FAO, USEPA, INS, and CWQI indicated the applicability of transforming TSE to 14 km away from the WWT planet daily for rehabilitation of Hammon Hirmand through irrigation of T.stricta to increase the vegetation cover to above 30%.

Dust emission reduction in iron ore concentrate production plant using value engineering method.

Dust emission is one of the critical problems of the mining industry. Dust emission can cause respiratory diseases among workers and adjacent residents of the factory and environmental pollution in the region. This study aims to reduce dust emissions of an iron ore concentrate plant in Iran. Applying dust control methods can affect the production process. Therefore, in this study, the value engineering (VE) method has been used, which focuses on improving the processes without affecting the main functions. This method is implemented in three stages. In the pre-study stage of VE, the prerequisites of study, such as determining the management requirements, study scope, evaluation criteria, forming the VE team, and planning, were met. In the study stage, the required information was collected; the studied process functions were identified and ranked; 62 ideas were created based on the functions and then evaluated; the final scenarios for the selected device, hopper, were developed and ranked using the VIKOR method; and finally, confirmation of the results by the management was obtained. In the post-study stage, the results will be implemented. The approach of this study was based on maintaining the functions of the production process and production rate and finding the most effective solution to reduce dust and environmental hazards, the most efficient solution in terms of performance, and the most cost-effective solution in terms of fixed and variable costs. According to the results, dry and wet dust suppression systems are the best options among the scenarios to meet the objectives of this study.

Association between Genetic Polymorphisms in Superoxide Dismutase Gene Family and Risk of Gastric Cancer.

To determine the association between the SOD1 (Ins/Del), SOD2 (rs2758339, rs5746136), and SOD3 (rs2536512) polymorphisms and the risk of gastric cancer the present study performed. This is a case-control study, including 159 patients with gastric cancer and 242 healthy controls. All subjects were Persian Muslims living in Shiraz (south west Iran). Frequency matching by age and gender was performed. Genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood. Genotypes of the study polymorphism were determined using polymerase chain reaction based methods. The SOD1 Ins/Del and SOD3 rs2536512 polymorphisms did not appear to have relationship with gastric cancer risk. Both SOD2 polymorphisms (rs2758339, rs5746136) showed significant association with the risk of gastric cancer, under assumption that the variant alleles act as dominant alleles. There was significant association between smoking habit and the risk of gastric cancer (OR = 2.54, 95% CI = 1.61-4.02, P < 0.001). Smoker individuals having two putative high-risk genotypes showed elevated risk of gastric cancer compared with nonsmokers without high-risk genotypes, (OR = 5.75, 95% CI = 1.59-20.6, P = 0.007). Assuming that smoking habit and the genotypes are independent risk factors, there was a significant linear trend for the numbers of risk factors and gastric cancer risk (χ2 = 22.9, P < 0.001). This study indicates that the SOD2 polymorphism (rs2758339, rs5746136) is associated with increased risk of gastric cancer, especially in smoker individuals.