Journal of Health and Safety at Work

Introduction: Illumination standards especially Illumination Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) and Iran lighting standards (ILS) are just based quantitative measurements. However, lighting has psychological effects and can influence quality and quantity of productivity and comfort of workers. Therefore, Illumination standards were undergone some changes. EN 12464-1 standards focus on the quality and quantity of lighting as well as the energy consumption. The aim of this study was to evaluate quality and quantity of lighting in Shemiranat health center.

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Material and Method: In this study, first work tables were divided into 20×20 squares and illuminance was measured by putting HANGER S3 luxmeter sensor on the center of each square. In next stage, the luminance of each lighting source was measured from the view of observe and the average luminance of work table surface was calculated in the divide square. Furthermore, vertical, horizontal and lateral distance between observes eye and lighting source was measured. The gathered information was put in the equation and glare rate was calculated. Finally, according to the table we obtained color rendering index of lighting sources.

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Result: Results of this study showed that maintained illuminance dose not mach the standards (500 lux) in any of the work station. Moreover, the glare match the standards just in less than 10 percent of the work area. Therefore, it is essential to reform the artificial lighting system and keep the maintained luminance and glare at the standard level.

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Conclusion: There is a dramatic difference between the current lighting condition and the standard values. Therefore, making changes in lighting system is obviously essential.

Introduction: PAHs are organic compounds with benzenic rings that releas from hot asphalt as incomplete combusting. These compounds are one of the major concern in scientific societies, workplace and environment due to their stability, bioaccumulation, carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. Since asphalt workers are exposed to PAHs frequently in their job, in this study it was attempted to evaluate respiratory exposure of asphalt workers to PAHs in their breathing zone.

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Material and Method: In this study air samples of the asphalt workers were collected in accordance with the NIOSH 5506 method using PTFE filter and XAD-2 adsorbent. The ultrasonic bath and acetonithrile are used in order to extract the analytes from the filter and adsorbent. Also, the samples were analyzed by HPLC-UV.

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Result: In all samples, Finisher assistance and oilman with 1754.48 ng/m3 , 24.65 ng/m3 had maximum and minimum exposed to ∑PAH, respectively. Among the PAHs compounds, which asphalt workers exposed to, Naphtalene had the highest concentration. Among different asphalt workers tasks, screedman expoused to PAHs, had a significant difference.

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Conclusion: Evaluation of Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons concentrations in the breathing zone of asphalt workers indicated that exposure to these compounds were below the occupational exposure limits recommended by NIOSH, OSAH, ACGIH and Iranian OEL. Due to the highly carcinogenic potential of some of these compounds and absence of occupational exposure limits for these compounds, likes Chrysene and Benzo (a) Anthracene, it is strictly recommended to employ engineering controls and using suitable PPEs. This study also indicated that the exposure to PAHs in the most asphalt workers tasks had significant differences, and it can be due to proximity of the workers to the source of hot asphalt and also exposure to the exhaust gases that releasesd from the construction machinery.