Journal of Occupational

  Background : Fluorine is an essential micronutrient for human health, serving to strengthen the apatite matrix of skeletal tissues and teeth. In regions where the fluoride (F−) concentration of water is naturally low (<0.5 mg/l), some communities have chosen to add this constituent to their drinking water to strengthen teeth and to minimize cavities P.B. Maithani, R. Gurjar, R. Banerjee, B.K. Balaji, S. Ramachandran and R. Singh, Anomalous . The aim of this study was to determine fluoride concentration in drinking water in shahroud city at the northern part of Iran as well as determination of DMF value in 7 year old children, for a duration of 6 years.

  Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, 138 students aged 7 were chosen randomly from Shahroud schools and were followed up for a duration of 6 years (2004-2009). They were examined by a dentist for determining the numbers of decayed, missing and filled permanent teeth. Also 120 samples were taken from drinking water in the city and Ion-selective method was used for measureing fluoride concentration. Determination of both DMF index and fluoride mean concentration was repeated for six years from 2004 to 2009.

  Results: Fluoride concentrations were between 0.45 to 0.75 mg/L and DMF index was between 3.18 to 3.81. There was a significant difference between both DMF index and fluoride mean concentrations in different years.

Conclusions: DMF index obtained in our study was higher than the index reported for the whole country (1.2-2.6mg/L).

  Background : Farmers and welders who work in open spaces and are exposed to direct sunlight are often exposed to sunlight radiation o n the neck and head . Thus, they may be afflicted with various types of skin cancer . The aim of the present study was to investigate the amount of UV exposure in welders working in Shahrud City , Iran .

  Materials and Method s : This cross-sectional , descriptive , analytical study was conducted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in indoor environments on all welders working in Shahrud City (n = 50) in 2014. An ultraviolet radiation (UVR) meter was used to measure UV R and the instrument was calibrated and utilized using factory instruction s . Moreover , All data obtained through the demographic checklist and self-reporting , and information related to UV R exposure were entered into SPSS software and analyzed.

  Results: The results showed that average UVR exposure with personal protection was 0.27 ± 1.15 , average UVR exposure without personal protection was 4.14 ± 1.69 . In addition, skin radiation exposure amount was 2.55 ± 1.54 . There was no significant statistical relationship between presence of disease , and radiation expsoure with or without protection euqipment and on the skin of welders (P > 0.05).

  Conclusions : This study indicated that UVR is among the main harmful factors in occupational environments. Welders are vulnerable to skin and eye disease due to UVR exposure. UV exposure in welders working in Shahrud City is below the threshold value therefore, it can cause injury and damage to the welders. Furthermore, insurance status, daily radiation exposure amount, received radiation exposure amount, and use of protection equipment had no significant relationship with incidence of disease in welders.

Background: Accidents and injuries are one of the most important causes of disability and death in developing countries. This study was conducted to determine the incidence rate and epidemiological characteristics of accidents in the Khomein city.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was done by national program of accidents and injuries registry data in the Khomein city (n=986(. To calculate the annually Incidence Rate (IR) and age-standardized incidence rate (ASR), the world standard population was used. Chi-square and independent t-test were used to examine the relationship or difference between variables.
Results: The mean age of the injured cases was 33.5±18.2 year. The annually Incidence Rate (IR) of accidents and injuries was 941.2 cases per 100,000, while the age-standardized incidence rate (ASR) were estimated 919 per 100,000 people. The sex ratio (male to female) in all accidents was 2.45. The most incidents occurred in both sexes were reported car accidents (32.55%), motorcycle accidents (31.8%), pedestrian accidents (16.5%) and poisoning (6.18%), respectively. Significant difference was observed between gender and type of incidents. Suicide attempts in the female group were 6.5 times higher than the male group.
Conclusion: The incidence rate of traffic crashes in the city of Khomein is several times higher than provincial and national levels. Therefore, should be In addition to the optimizing the roads and removing the Accident-prone spots. The high occurrence of poisonings and suicide attempt in the women's group is warning danger for the authorities to take preventive policies and applying cultural mechanisms to reduce this ratio.