Introduction: Bioremediation convertssoils pollutants to safe and non-toxic substance through metabolic activities of microorganisms. This research was conducted to evaluate the effect of bacteria on removal of phenanthrene and anthracene from polluted soils using chicken manure as an auxiliary substrate.
Materials and Methods: First, uniformly-graded soils were transferred to the pilots, then activated sludge and chicken manure were added and mixed with the soilin specific ratios of 2:1 and 1: 1. Thereafter, phenanthrene and anthracene were manually added to the soil of each pilotat a rate of 12 mg/kg of soil. Anthracene and phenanthrene were measured using HPLC.
Results: The results showed that in control pilots (without chicken manure and sludge), the removal percentage of pollutants (phenanthrene + anthracene) was 15%. Nevertheless, when chicken manure and chicken manure + sludge were used, the removal percentageincreased to 80 and 84%, respectively. Control pilots showed the lowest percentage of COD removal and varied from approximately 7 to 10%. Although the percentage of COD removal was approximately 80%, with the addition of chicken manure + sludge, COD removal rate reached 90% (the highest removal percentage).
Conclusion: The use of chicken manure as a cosubstratecanbe considered as an appropriate alternative for increasing the efficiency of bioremediation of oil compounds in soil.

Introduction: Current energy sources are coming to end and one of the main priorities of the country’s management is the energy recovery from renewable energy. Considerable quantity of municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the most serious urban pollution sources. Impact assessment matrix is a new and fast tool for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
Materials and Methods: In this regard, renewable energy like waste-to-energy was investigated. Environmental assessment method was performed to evaluate the environmental impacts of common Waste to Energy (WTE) technologies by Wooten and Rau matrix. Most available WTE technologies (anaerobic digestion, sanitary landfill with gas recovery, waste incineration, and gasification) were environmentally assessed and compared.
Results: Results showed that anaerobic digestion could be most environmental friendly WTE technology for production of renewable energy from organic waste and could be considered. Furthermore, executives as green minded managements can improve the quality of waste management by finding new solutions. Other technologies such as landfill by gas recovery and gasification will be ranked second and third in terms of environmental effect.
Conclusion: Results showed that performing anaerobic digestion technology will produce less environmental impact in long term. Then landfilling by gas recovery and gasification technologies will be ranked second and third in terms of environmental effect.

Introduction: Exposure to pesticides in greenhouse workers is associated with several health outcomes, such as cognitive impairment. This study aimed to investigate the association between exposure to pesticides and cognitive function in Yazd city greenhouse workers and those living in the proximity of the greenhouses.
Materials and Methods: In this study, three groups of participants were selected, including the greenhouse workers, the residents in the proximity of the greenhouses, and the control group. A semi-quantitative assessment of pesticide exposure was used to calculate the subjects’ cumulative pesticide exposure as a proxy for long-term exposure to pesticides. Blood level of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity was measured as a biomarker of effect. Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), and Mini–mental State Examination (MMSE) were used to assess cognitive functions (including memory, executive functions, attention, visual, and verbal functions).
Results: Mean cholinesterase activity in the greenhouse workers (average = 7009.3 U/L) was lower than the two other groups.  The results of the cognitive function score for both FAB and MMSE tests did not show a significant difference between the direct exposure and indirect exposure groups, although the cognitive function score in the pesticide applicators was lower than the two other study groups (e.g. for FAB score: 13.89, 14.55, and 15.4 for the greenhouse workers, the residents in the proximity of greenhouses, and the control group). The results also showed that in the direct exposure group, those with lower levels of cholinesterase activity also had a lower cognitive function.
Conclusion: The findings indicated that there is a potential link between impaired cognitive function and exposure to pesticides in the greenhouse workers.

Introduction: Xenobiotic contamination is a global concern. Nitroaromatic compounds enter the environment through ammunition, ordnance disposal, burning the outdoors, and leakage of ammunition. Thirty percent of explosives enter the environment without any change, which can cause pollution of soil, water, and health concerns. So, effective remediation of the contaminated area is necessary.
Materials and Methods: Soil bioreactors consisted of plastic pans placed in larger pans. Explosives were analyzed using a High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) system, Model 486 UV detector, and a Nova Pak C18 guard column. LC-MS detected intermediates on an RP18 analytical column equipped with a C18 guard column.
Results: Rhamnolipid significantly affected 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) biodegradation rates with the help of indigenous bioaugmentation. The mentioned condition was also effective on the maximum bacterial growth in various nitroaromatics (S0) concentrations, in which the top change occurred. The specific growth rate was foremost in a setup containing microbial inoculated and biosurfactant (0.19) responding to 800 mg/kg TNT and 150 mg/kg PETN. The maximum bacterial enumeration of sludge and biosurfactant were 4.8 × 10⁸ and 4.1 × 10⁸ CFU/g, respectively. The aerobic-anaerobic sequence could be able to produce less harmful metabolites. In an aerobic-anaerobic sequence process, using the anaerobic process could help complete the azo compounds degradation in the aerobic stage.
Conclusion: Aerobic-anaerobic condition is suitable for bioremediation contaminated explosive sites and achieving complete mineralization. Generally, this proposed method is possible for in situ bioremediation.

Introduction: The present study examines the association between ambient air pollution and harmful consequences at birth in Yazd, Iran during 2017-2020.
Materials and Methods: This time series study by the autoregressive (AR) and moving average (MA) or ARMA model was conducted in Yazd, Iran. Birth information including fetal sex, birth weight, birth height, and head circumference as well as preterm birth (PTB) and abortion was collected from mother and birth cohort databases. Data on air pollutants concentrations in the corresponding gestational period were obtained from fixed air monitors of Yazd Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center. The time series model statistical test was performed to find the relation between ambient air pollution and harmful consequences at birth.
Results: 2131 singleton live births were monitored for 3 years. In ARMA models, the ratio of girl births to total births (Coef: 7.943, 95% CI: 2.797, 13.089), preterm delivery (Coef: 2.915, 95% CI: 0.224, 5.606), and spontaneous abortion (Coef: 44.751, 95% CI: 26.872, 62.629) was associated with NO₂ exposure. Distributed mismatch models also suggested associations between the Air Quality Index (AQI) in pregnant women with a sex-premature birth relationship (Coef: 0.001, 95% CI: 0.000, 0.001).
Conclusion: Exposure to air pollution, even at low levels, may increase the risk of sex ratio in singletons, premature birth, and spontaneous abortion. However, the results of the present study could not definitively show the relationship between air quality and other birth problems. More research studies are required to investigate the present findings.

Introduction: Extremely low frequency (ELF) waves are less than 300 Hz. Electrical devices with city electricity are one of the most important sources of generating ELF waves. The main objective of this research was to investigate and compare the magnetic fields produced by ELF electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) waves in different parts of residential houses in Yazd city.
Material and Methods: Thirty-three houses were selected, and an EMF-828 was used (made in Taiwan) for ELF-EMF intensity measurement in three parts of the kitchen, living room, and bedroom and three modes of Normal, OFF, and ON electrical instruments.
Results: Two-way ANOVA was used to compare two-by-two ELF waves in three modes: OFF, Normal, and ON. A significant value was obtained (p-value=0.036) in OFF and ON modes in the living room. Similar results were for kitchen (p-value=0.014) in two modes of ON and OFF. However, there was not a significant relationship (p>0.05) between the mean intensity of ELF-EMF waves and the studied building parameters.
Conclusion: The mean intensity of the ELF waves in different modes was not the same in kitchen and was in the order of ON> Normal> OFF that could be related to high-wave generation equipment. The comparison of mean intensity ​​of ELF-EMF waves in different locations of the investigated houses was much lower than the standard level set by ICNIRP. Preventing the simultaneous use of high-power electrical instruments led to both save consumption and reduce EMF-ELF waves exposure risk.