Although the vulnerability assessment of forest parks is used to determine the threats they face, a rapid and holistic framework has not been established well. The primary objective of this study is to adopt a framework for rapid assessment of forest parks vulnerability, examined in Lavizan forest park in Tehran (Iran) as the case study. The vulnerability assessment has been conducted, using the evaluation matrix on the basis of landscape and ecological values and threats. In this model, the most important values and threatening factors of the Lavizan forest park have been identified and assessed, based on the intensity of their effect as well as occurrence probability. Finally, this article proposes five strategies to reduce the vulnerability. Results from this research indicate that the most important values have been air purifcation, wildlife, flora and fauna species, environment regulation, mental health, and scientific resources and the most important threats have included reduction of habitat diversity, intensive exploitation of the resources, fire, woodcutting, and reduction of ecological connectivity. Based on these vulnerabilities, the most important strategies propose the use of affordance strategy formulation framework to preserve and enhance ecological and landscape values of the park.

The present study evaluates health risk assessment for inhabitants who are exposed to chromium in fishes and vegetables of the Gulshan Lake. In the fish, chromium concentration has amounted to 2.2 to 149.7 mg/kg, while in vegetables leaf and vegetables stem it has been 5.6 mg/kg and 12.0 mg/kg, respectively. What is more, in sediment it has been 179.5 to 308 mg/kg and in water, 4.0 to 16.9 mg/l. Higher accumulation of chromium (149.7 mg/kg) has been found in a fish species, relatively most affordable for poor people, called Pangas (Pangasius pangasius). Therefore, due to consumption of this fish the resultant non-cancer health hazard indices to people, living nearby Gulshan Lake has been almost 10 times greater than those induced by safe average daily dosages of the respective chemical. Vegetable pathway is still safe in terms of non-carcinogenic health hazard but may be very likely to act as an additive. It is therefore important to immediately take some remedial measures to not only reclaim Gulshan Lake but prevent any further pollution also.

The study evaluates associated health risks of heavy metals in the soil to inhabitants of two mining areas of Nigeria. For so doing, it collects and analyses nine homogenous soil samples for their lead, copper, cadmium, zinc, and chromium levels, using AAS. The samples are then used to calculate health risks to adults and children. For adult population in Agbaja community, the calculated hazard quotients fall below one in all considered pathways. Hazard index values for all the pathways are also less than one, taking the following order: Cu>Cr>Pb>Cd>Zn. It is shown that for all considered heavy metals, the adult population in Agbaja mining community was not at any risk of non-carcinogenic effects from these metals. As for the children in Agbaja, the calculated HQ values for Cd and Zn have been less than one in all the pathways, while the HQ values for Pb, Cr, and Cu have significantly surpassed 1, with the ingestion route being the main pathway. The HI values have been in the following order: Cu>Cr>Pb>Cd>Zn, which poses serious non-carcinogenic health risks to the children, living around this community. The carcinogenic risk has been calculated based on Pb, Cd, and Cr, with the former (Pb) proven to be the highest contributor to cancer risk. USEPA considers acceptable cancer risk within the range of 1×10−6 to 1×10−4. Though insignificant in its values, carcinogenic risk for adults in Agbaja (2.95×10-4) and Itakpe (4.71×10-4) and for children in Itakpe (4.47×10-4) have been higher than the acceptable values. Hence, the adults are more at risk, for whom ingestion is the main contributor to excess lifetime cancer risk, followed by dermal pathways. Considering the health hazards, entailed by the accumulation of these heavy metals, on human health, mining sites and areas require to get monitored properly.

A greenhouse experiment has been planned for this study to delineate the benefits of two types of rice husk biochars (namely B300 and B600 which are prepared at 300°C and 600°C, respectvely) and coal fly ash (CFA), as soil amendments, for decreasing the amount of some heavy metals (like Pb, Cd, Ni, Cr, and Cu) as well as mobility and phytoavailability in an artificially-calcareous multi-element-contaminated soil. The effect of soil amendment on heavy metals’ availability has been evaluated via sequential extraction experiment and phytoavailability of the plant. According to the results, among the studied amendments, B600 has had the highest positive effect on both dry matter yield in corn and heavy metals’ availability reduction in post-harvest soil samples (with the exception of Cr), compared to CFA and B300, due to the increasing specific surface area, CEC, and pH that promote heavy metals’ sorption in the soil through surface complexation and ion exchange mechanisms. Evaluation of heavy metals’ chemical forms in post-harvest soil samples indicates that addition of amendments has significantly decreased mobility factor of heavy metals (with the exception of Cr in CFA-amended soils). In general, application of three soil amendments to this polluted soil has considerable effect on the reduction of heavy metals’ availability and phytoavailability. However, among the studied amendments, B600 and CFA have had the maximum and minimum effect on heavy metals’ availability reduction, respectively.

Application of aromatic compounds has dramatically increased as raw materials in various industries and different factories have been established to produce aromatic compounds. The current research aims at characterizing industrial waste generation in aromatics production process in petrochemical industries and determining the best feasible alternative for waste disposal. For this purpose, the world’s biggest aromatic producer, i.e. Nouri Petrochemical Complex (NPC), located in Asaluyeh, Iran, has been selected as case study. Firstly, different waste streams, generated during aromatics production, have been determined through a specific checklist. Spent industrial soil, catalyst, spent sieve, and Normal­-Formyl­-Morpholine (NFM) solvent are the most important identified wastes in NPC, with the former being the most generated waste in NPC with a rate of 600 tons per year. Afterwards, the mentioned waste has been sampled and important physicochemical specification such as heavy metals and organic compounds has been measured. Ni, Cu, and As are remarkable trace heavy metals, observed in all kinds of generated waste. In the next step, industrial waste classification and coding has been done, based on different guidelines. Finally different feasible alternatives like material recovery, sanitary landfill, and incineration have been compared, based on conventional economic, technical, and environmental indices. The best feasible waste disposal methods are the extraction of heavy metals from spent catalysts, recycling of spent molecular sieves and spent industrial soil as additives to building materials, and recovery of thermal energy by incineration of spent NFM solvent.

The present study synthesizes Zn-TiO2 photocatalyst via a simple and economic green rout, in which Green Tea is applied as a green reducing agent due to the presence of polyphenols Molecules. Polyphenol molecules in green tea act as a reductant, thus changing Zn2+ to metallic Zn. The by-produced nanocmposites are characterized by using XRD, FESEM, EDS, and DRS. Zn-TiO2 photocatalyst possesses great efficient charge separation properties. In order to investigate the presence of Zn, different weight ratio of Zn to TiO2 (viz. 5 wt%, 10 wt%, 15 wt%, 20 wt%, 25 wt%, 30 wt%, 35 wt%, 40 wt%, 45 wt%, and 50 wt%) have been synthesized and their performance in Acid Orange 7 (AO7) photodegradation, compared with pure TiO2. According to the results, the compound with 25 wt% Zn shows 97% degradation of AO7 as a model pollutant. Also, it has been shown that after three tests with EDTA, benzoic acid, and under Ar gas, photodegradation of AO7 with Zn-TiO2 photocatalyst mainly depends on photogenerated holes.

Indoor radon and thoron have been measured in the houses ofMoradabad District, Uttar Pradesh India, by means of solid state nuclear trackdetectors. Radon, an invisible radioactive gas, occurs naturally in indooratmospheres and along with thoron is the most important contribution of humanexposure to natural sources. Radon exists in soil gas building materials and indooratmosphere to name but a few. Risk of lung cancer depends on the concentrationof radon and thoron and their decay products in the environment aboverecommended levels. The present article measures the concentration of indoorradon and thoron in 60 dosimeters by means of a solid state nuclear track detectorin different house types of Moradabad district, Uttar Pradesh. The measurementshave been carried out in residential buildings at a height of 2 m from the sea level,using a twin chamber radon dosimeter. The value of radon concentration in thepresent study varies between 10.5 Bq/m3 and 29.5 Bq/m3 with an average of 19.8Bq/m3 while that of thoron is between 5.6 Bq/m3 and 24 Bq/m3 with an average of14.9 Bq/m3 respectively. Results, obtained with twin cup radon/thoron dosimeter,show that the concentration of indoor radon and thoron have been within therecommended level, with all the values staying under the safe limits, decreed bythe International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) and UnitedNations Scientific Committee on the Effect of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR).

Biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, toxic compounds widely distributed in the environment by bacteria, is a cheap and safe cleaning up method. The present study attempts to isolate and characterize dioxygenase-producing bacteria which are able to degrade phenanthrene and pyrene from refinery soils. It also aims to assess in vitro biodegradation. To do so, two contaminated soil samples were collected from Isfahan-Iran refinery. The population of phenanthrene and pyrene degrading bacteria were 2.17 × 103 and 1.19 × 103 CFU/g in sample 1 and  21.50 × 103 and 19.40 × 103 CFU/g in sample 2. A sum of 18 phenanthrene and pyrene degrading bacteria were isolated using enrichment culture technique, three of them getting selected which had dioxygenase activity and produced biosurfactant. Identified as Pseudomonas plecoglossicida ATAI18, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATAI19, and Pseudomonas stutzeri ATAI21, they were submitted to GenBank under the accession number of KF113842, KF113843, and KF113845 respectively. The degradation rate of pyrene (50 mg/L) by strains ATAI18 and ATAI19 was 45.32% and 31.23%, respectively. The strain ATAI21 degraded 39.38% of phenanthrene (50 mg/L) after 9 days. These isolated bacteria can be used to improve microbial population of other hydrocarbon-polluted soils for faster bioremediation of such areas.

The present study has been conducted on Caspian Roach (Rutilus rutilus) so that the impact of different concentrations lead on blood hematological, biochemical, and immunological indicators could be investigated. The roach (Rutilus rutilus), used in this study, was 3.3±0.3 g heavy and 4±0.80 cm long in average. The fish were exposed to a low concentration of 10% LC50 and high concentration of 50% LC50 lead for a period of 0, 24, 48, and 96 h. The experiment was done in a static toxicity condition, within tanks of 400L, each including 14 fish. In the 96-hour period (10% LC50 Lead), the parameters of WBC and RBC dropped significantly in comparison to the control group (0 h) (P<0.05). MCV and MCH elevated as the exposure time ascended up to 96 h (P<0.05), but the cortisol decreased in the meantime. In the 96-hour period (50% LC50 Lead) RBC, Hb and Hct parameters plummeted towards the control group (P<0.05). Heavy metals can change physiological and biochemical parameters in fish blood. The results show that lead (10% LC50 and 50% LC50 concentration Lead) may poison the fish, causing their death. The major toxicity belongs to the 50% LC50 concentration Lead.

Conserving water resources and protecting them from pollution are of high account in the natural cycle of our life. This study has tried to determine the refining potential and capacity of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) in order to remove the cadmium from water, studying the influence of factors such as initial concentration of cadmium, contact time, absorbent mass, and pH. Results have shown that the best efficiency of cadmium, more than 99%, was obtained in the optimum conditions (i.e. retention time of 30 hours, adsorbent dose of three plants (12 stems), and pH=6.6). By increasing the initial concentration of cadmium from 0.28 to 8.28 mg/L, the elimination efficiency did not change; moreover, by increasing the absorbent mass, the elimination efficiency increased from 98.4 to 99.8 and the lowest retention time was obtained for the balance. All experiments have been repeated three times, showing in the end that water hyacinth is able to absorb cadmium up to 8.28 mg/L. This process follows Freundlich isotherm (R2=0.98). Results of this study indicate that this plant can grow well at high levels of cadmium and the growth of water hyacinth is better in the presence of cadmium than control conditions (city water). Finally, it can be concluded that it is necessary to provide a reliable, cheap, and fast method to eliminate pollution. Eichhornia crassipes, a promising plant with great functionality, can be used as a refiner in order to eliminate the heavy metals in wastewater (sewage) effluents, particularly industrial sewage.