Trace elements in commercially available infant formulas in Iran: Determination and estimation of health risks.

Infants are significantly more vulnerable to trace elements from their foods. The objective of the present study was to ascertain the concentrations of some trace elements namely; arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel and lead in infant formulas sold in Iran and to estimate the potential health risks to the infants through consumption of these products. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni and Pb in infant formula samples were 0.006, 0.040, 0.3980, 2.014, 0.166 and 0.285 mg/kg, respectively. The mean levels of the trace elements were in the following order: Cu > Cr > Pb > Ni > Cd > As. For arsenic, cadmium and copper, calculated EWIs (estimated weekly intakes) were within the PTWIs (provisional tolerated weekly intakes) recommended by FAO/WHO. For chromium, nickel and lead, the calculated EWIs were higher than the PTWIs in 88.8 %, 75 %, and 61.1 % of the formulas. HQs of Pb, Cu, Cd and As were above the safe limits, indicating health concerns from the consumption of some infant formulas. Based on the CR classification, CR values of some elements including Cd, Cr and Ni were above 1 × 10-4 in some brands, indicating that exposure to these elements from infant formulas may cause health risks. Therefore, regular monitoring of all the raw materials, stages of production and storage of infant formulas is essential to limit the exposure of this vulnerable age group to toxic trace elements.

Analysis of trace elements in processed products of grapes and potential health risk assessment.

Raisins and grape pekmez are consumed commonly by human all over the globe. Consumption of contaminated foods may be the likely pathway of heavy metal exposure. Therefore, the objectives of the present research were to quantify trace elements concentration in raisins and grape pekmez produced from locally grown grapes in Gonabad and to assess non-carcinogenic (HQ and HI) and carcinogenic (total cancer risk, CRt) health risks caused by trace elements exposure via oral intake of these products for children, teenagers, and adults. For this purpose, a totally 30 (15 raisins and 15 grape pekmez) samples were purchased from the vineyard gardeners and examined for ten trace elements including As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn. The HI values signaled that the studied population consuming these products is at risk. The HQ, HI, and CRt values of the elements were in order of children > teenagers > adults. The highest cancer risk contribution was attributed to As and Ni for all the studied age groups in both raisins and grape pekmez samples. However, it is recommended that the concentration of trace elements in the soil and crops of the study area and its related health risks be regularly monitored to avoid significant health risks in the future.

Determination of Concentration of Metals in Grapes Grown in Gonabad Vineyards and Assessment of Associated Health Risks.

Metals are considered major public health hazards, and they are known to accumulate in fruits, which are consumed by humans because of their unique sweet taste and potential health benefits. Therefore, the aims of this study were to determine the concentration of ten metals, namely arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) in red grape samples grown in Gonabad vineyards and to estimate the associated health risks of metals in terms of chronic daily intake (CDI), carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks by hazard quotient (HQ), hazard index (HI), and cancer risk (CR) for children, teenagers, and adults. The overall concentrations of the metals in red grapes were in the range 0.07-0.5 (mean 0.14), 0.08-0.13 (mean 0.10), 0.07-0.13 (mean 0.09), 0.06-1.49 (mean 0.29), 0.52-4.12 (mean 1.65), 6.43-42.17 (mean 19.01), 0.89-4.04 (mean 1.89), 0.07-9.23 (mean 0.71), 0.07-0.37 (mean 0.18), and 0.40-4.13 (mean 1.05) mg/kg dry weight for As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn, respectively. Based on the results, As in 11.76% and Zn in 5.88% of the samples exceeded the FAO/WHO permissible limits. The estimated non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk indices for children, teenagers, and adults showed that the results were lower than the critical value (1) and were in acceptable range. Therefore, red grape is safe for consumption with no impact on the human health. However, red grape consumption was just one part of fruit consumption, and the potential health hazards for inhabitants might actually be higher than in this research when other routes of heavy metal intake and also other fruits are considered.

Management and health risk assessment of chemical contamination events in water distribution systems using PSO.

An accidental or intentional contamination event can raise health and sociopolitical concerns, erode public trust, and affect the operation of water distribution systems. In this regard, emergency management plans are required to describe the necessary measures in order to deal with a threat. This study was carried out to investigate the best ways to manage intrusion in a water distribution network. In this research, the optimal management approach to deal with chemical contamination in a water distribution network was examined under three scenarios using the particle swarm optimization method. In each scenario, three management solutions were used to manage the contamination, including closing the pipe, opening the fire hydrant, and using a combination of pipe closure and fire hydrant opening. Contamination risk impact on consumers' health was assessed in the network's emergency status and after implementation of the best pollution management scenarios. The results showed that in the benchmark network, pipe closure was slightly more successful than opening of the fire hydrant valve. In pollution management of a real network, pipe closure was less effective than the hydrant opening in all scenarios. Generally, all applied scenarios were successful in reducing the contamination risk among the exposed people, so that carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks reduced by 100% in all scenarios compared to the non-management state.

Preparing the optimal emergency response protocols by MOPSO for a real-world water distribution network.

Water security is considered as one of the critical subjects that can arise from different issues, for instance, the injection of a poisonous pollutant into the drinking water system of a city followed by a terrorist attack. If the network lacks optimal operation to provide security against this threat, the whole population of the city can be affected by such an incident. This study aimed at preparing the optimal emergency response protocols by multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO). Furthermore, it calculates the risk of contaminants entering the network. The problem consists of three main objectives: 1) minimizing the number of operational interventions, 2) minimizing the number of polluted nodes, and 3) minimizing the number of exposed individuals. The location of closed valves and opened hydrants was chosen as decision variables. The proposed method is demonstrated using a benchmark and a real network.

Calibration of water quality model for distribution networks using genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, and hybrid methods.

Chlorine reacts with both organic and inorganic matters in water. That is why water quality modeling has received great attention in recent years. The serious issue in municipal water quality modeling is gathering the essential input parameters of the model, particularly bulk decay (kb) and wall decay (kw) coefficients as well as their calibrations. Therefore, this study first thoroughly formulates the problem in the form of a heuristic optimization and then utilizes Genetic Algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimization, and Hybrid GA-PSO as the model optimizers in order to best calibrate kw for minimizing the difference of residual chlorine concentrations that exist between the simulated and observed values. These three algorithms are linked to EPANET, the hydraulic and water quality simulator. The method is then applied to a real-world water distribution network. Here, k w is considered as a decision variable. The objective function is to minimize both the Sum of Square Error and Root Mean Square Error between the observed and simulated chlorine concentrations. According to the simulation results obtained, the optimal value of wall decay coefficient is 1.233 m/day during the calibration process while the minimum and maximum differences between the measured and simulated chlorine rates were 0 and 0.18, respectively. •The method presented in this article can be useful for managers of water and wastewater companies, water resources facilities and operators and operation manager of water distribution system to manage chlorine dosing rate.•Due to adverse health effect of disinfection by product and poor microbial water quality as results of inefficient chlorination, control chlorine concentration in water distribution networks and its consequence on human health effect is necessary.•Hybrid PSO and GA methods are used to cope with their falling in local optimum and requiring highly computational effort.