Volume 20 - 2018

Noise pollution higher than the standard values intensifies the patients' disease and also has negative effects on hospital staff. This study aimed to determine the level of noise pollution in the Kermanshah hospitals and also to compare obtained data with national and international standards. Multifunctional sound level meter (Model CEL – 450), has been applied for determining the sound level in different parts of a hospital in 3 different time of day (morning, visiting hours (evening), and night) for working day and holiday. The highest level was on working days and it was 60.24±5.76 dB. The average noise level on holiday was 58.15±5.44 dB. Generally, the average noise level in all studied hospitals was higher than the standard levels. The results of the analyses showed that when the P=0.003, there’s a significant difference between the average noise levels on different days. According to the results of the studies, it is necessary to plan and take managerial and technical – engineering measures to reduce the noise levels to standard levels.

Presence of metals even at trace levels in natural waters pose sever health risks. Heavy metals are introduced to coastal and marine environments through a variety of sources and activities including sewage and industrial effluents where Black Sea is not different. However, metals behave differently in Black Sea as it an enclosed body. Coastal areas of Turkey face great challenges due to heavy metal contamination caused by rapid urbanization and industrialization. The aim of this study was to investigate the spatial and temporal distributions of total mercury (Hg) in seawater at the mid-Black Sea coast of Samsun, Turkey. The samples were collected from 13 monitoring stations, from the three distances in four seasons during the year 2013. The samples were analyzed for physicochemical parameters along with contamination and enrichment factors. The distribution of Hg is nearly random along the studied coast but obtained values ranges from 0.57 to 12.6 μg/L with an average of 5.24 μg/L were above permissible limits. It was observed that number of samples collected during wet seasons (winter and autumn) with Hg were higher. High enrichment factor 0.331 and contamination factor 25.2 was recorded. Hg present at sampling station M27 was due to point source, a possible ship activity indicated by enrichment factor. The sources responsible for water pollution with Hg are mainly municipal and industrial effluents, leaching, agricultural and pasturage runoff and oil spills. Furthermore, due to unique hydrography of Black Sea, risk of Hg accumulation is high. Interestingly, a direct relation between basicity and Hg concentration was observed. i.e. highest concentration was found on pH 8.33.

Municipal solid waste generation in Malaysia has increase significantly. Organic materials continue to be the major portion of solid waste generated in Kampar, Malaysia. As a result of increasing rate of waste generation and population growth, land area will become more demanding causing the increment of the cost in solid waste management. As a result, solid waste management will become more expensive in the future. Waste separation and organic composting can provide good solution in reducing waste disposal. Nevertheless, public awareness is an important key to improve solid waste management issue. During this study, questionnaire was designed to test out public general knowledge regarding waste management, and their willingness to do composting. 270 questionnaires were distributed to the public. Data analysis of the questionnaire shows that only a few of the respondents (24 numbers) have good awareness. Likert scale was applied to prioritize the factors that discourage waste separation and organic composting practices in Kampar District. This paper concluded that public education and awareness toward solid waste minimization using composting is crucial.

In this study, Mieczkowski's Tourism Climate Index (TCI) was used for Iran to investigate the climate change impacts on outdoor human comfort. The long-term data covering a network of 153 stations were used to compute TCI under baseline conditions (1981–2015) and a climate change scenario (HadCM3-A1B) for 2016-2045. In this study LARS-WG was used for downscaling of large spatial resolution GCM outputs to a finer spatial resolution. User-friendly and multi-platform software which is called ITCIC (Iran Tourism Climate Index Calculator) was designed to calculate TCI. The spatial distribution of TCI for baseline and climate change conditions was investigated and the covered area by each TCI class was calculated by using ArcGIS 10. The annual distributions of TCI were investigated based on Scott and McBoyle (2001) Models. Also, a suite of multiple linear and non-linear regression models was used to determine the relationship between TCI, latitudes, longitudes and elevations of regions. Root mean square error (RMSE), mean error (ME), mean absolute relative error (MARE) and coefficient of determination (R2) were used to evaluate the modeling accuracy. The best time and regions for outdoor activities in the base and future periods were determined. Comparison of the covered area by each TCI class in the base and future periods showed that the climate change occurrence was led to improving climate comfort. The results of error evaluation criteria showed that non-linear regression was appropriate for all month except January and October.