Hygiene Regulations Research Articles

Surveillance Study on Bacterial Contamination Associated With Automated Teller Machines of Different Banks in Jazan Region

The environmental surfaces play an important role in the spread of pathogens and infectious diseases. Human are particularly susceptible to pick up microbes from environmental objects, especially from publicly and regularly used objects. The Automated teller machines (ATMs) are very likely to be the reservoir of different kinds of microorganisms, both pathogenic and non-pathogenic. In our study, we investigated the microbial contamination of multiple ATM machines in Jazan region. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study which was conducted between September to November, 2021. A sum of 42 sample were collected which yielded a total of 15 isolated bacterial species that was identified as follows: Bacillus spp. (73%), CoNS. (15%), Staphylococcus aureus (14%), Pseudomonas luteola (12.5%), Pantoea agglomerans (10%), Acinetobacter baumannii (7.5%), Escherichia coli (5%), Enterobacter cloacae (5%), and other 5 Gram negative species (total of 12.5%). Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the isolates to commonly prescribed antibiotics showed that the highest resistant species are S. aureus (44%), CNS (48%) and E. coli (40%), while all the other bacteria showed varied degrees of resistance to the antibiotics tested. These results suggest that ATMs machines may play a role in transmission of drug resistant bacteria in Jazan, therefore, creating a public health risk. Intriguingly, our study comes after a large-scale and intense hygienic COVID-19 awareness programs. Hence, there is an urgent need to implement and improve hygienic practices and regulation when using such public machines.

Порядок расчета технологических показателей выбросов загрязняющих веществ при разработке заявки на получение комплексного экологического разрешения

System of technological regulations of negative impact on the environment based on best available tech-niques could be perspective environment regulation. The hygienic regulation of environment is based on the principle of non-exceedance of outdoor (ambient) air pollu-tion level at control points. The level is represented by maximum allowable concentrations. The implementation of technological standards into the environment regulation has changed its essence. Technological standards are standards for emissions and discharges of pollutants, as well as standards for permissible physical impacts, which are established using technological values.The assessment of air pollution and comparing the results with technological values seems possible after implementation of technological standards into the environment regulation. The main focus of the study is to determine the procedure of calculating the technological values of emissions. It was considered on the example of an inorganic chemical industry enterprise in the Perm region. A number of environmental documentation developed for the enterprise was analyzed, the methodology for selecting information and technical reference documents was de-scribed during the study to calculate the technological values of emissions. Procedure calculating the technological val-ues of pollutant emissions was developed during the study. It is universal and applicable to enterprises in any sectors of industry.

Challenges and solutions for refugee vaccination – INSP methodology about refugees

Since February 24, when Russia invaded Ukraine, more than 4.5 million people chose to move to areas where they feel safe. Approximately 650,000 refugees passed through Ro­ma­nia. A total of 80,000 chose to stay in our country and 30,000 of them are children. In this context, given the high epi­de­mio­lo­gi­cal risk of communicable diseases, the Ministry of Public Health sent to all public health departments, the Metho­do­lo­gi­cal Guide for monitoring the hygiene conditions in refugee camps, especially targeting counties with border cros­sing-points. The guide contains a series of measures re­gar­ding the on-site hygiene regulations, drinking water supply, wastewater management, waste management, vec­tor control, and the Syndromic Surveillance System do­cu­ment for the detection of communicable diseases related to the influx of people from Ukraine. The document contains case definitions for seven types of syndromes: respiratory, diph­the­ria, eruptive, neurological (meningeal and acute flaccid paralysis), diarrhea and viral hemorrhagic fever. An epi­de­mio­lo­gical triage questionnaire was developed and sent to all medical staff that interact with refugees.

ТОКСИКОЛОГИЧЕСКАЯ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКА, КЛАССИФИКАЦИЯ ОПАСНОСТИ И ОБОСНОВАНИЕ ПРЕДЕЛЬНО ДОПУСТИМЫХ КОНЦЕНТРАЦИЙ ФАРМАЦЕВТИЧЕСКОЙ СУБСТАНЦИИ МЕТФОРМИНА ГИДРОХЛОРИД В ВОЗДУХЕ РАБОЧЕЙ ЗОНЫ И АТМОСФЕРЫ

A toxicological and hygienic assessment of the pharmaceutical substance of metformin hydrochloride was performed using various regimens, doses and ways of entry into the body of laboratory animals. The conducted studies allowed us to establish the parameters of the toxicometry of metformin and the features of its biological action, which consist in the absence of an irritating effect on the skin and skin-resorptive properties, an allergenic effect on the body and weak cumulative properties and irritant effect on the mucous membranes of the eyes. Hazard classes of the metformin hydrochloride and hygienic regulations for this substance content in the air of the working area and atmosphere have been developed.

The flow of micrometre-sized glass fibres in a replica of the human trachea

Inhaled fibres can potentially cause inflammation of the lung tissue and interstitium which, after long-term exposure, may lead to lung cancer, malignant mesothelioma or pulmonary and pleural fibrosis. For risk reduction and correct setting of occupational hygiene regulations, it is important to be able to precisely calculate the fate of inhaled fibres depending on their physical characteristics and inhalation conditions. As there is a lack of experimental data on the orientation of fibres, a new test rig has been assembled for visualization and recording of flowing fibres in a replica of the human trachea. Fibres prepared from regular glass fibres produced commercially for blown thermal insulation have been processed, dispersed and introduced into the glass tube with dimensions of the trachea. Visualization was performed using a powerful LED light and a high-speed camera. Angles of the fibres have been evaluated for six different flowrates and the dependence of the angles on the flow Reynolds number was searched for. The angles of fibres agreed with expected values, i.e. only vertically and horizontally oriented fibres were recorded. However, the number of vertically and horizontally oriented fibres did not seem to be correlated with the flow Reynolds number.

The Value-Added and Linkage Effect Analysis of Taiwan’s Agricultural Sector

There is an increasing consensus in Taiwan that for agricultural development and policy planning the traditional production-based agriculture perspective should be replaced with a value chain perspective. Accordingly, when considering the value-added contribution of Taiwan’s agricultural sector, its relation-ship with upstream, midstream and downstream sectors should be considered and estimated altogether. In this study, we use the demand-side input-output (IO) methodology to compute and analyze the value-added and linkage effects of Taiwan’s agricultural sector. We found that if all the contribution along the value chain is considered, agriculture sector accounts for approximately between 10.56% and 11.85% of GDP, which is a sevenfold increase compared to contribution based on its mere production value (i.e., 1.65% - 1.87% of GDP). This study recommends that future agricultural policy planning, in addition to focusing only on the primary production agriculture, should also include the distribution sector and food and beverage services sector, such as regulations for e-commerce sales channels for agricultural products, food hygiene regulations for the food and beverage industry, and cold chain logistics regulations for agricultural products.

Hygienic Characteristics of the Digital Information and Educational Environment and the Risk of Its Mental Health Impacts in Students with Different Degrees of Myopia

Introduction: Today, educational conditions and the lifestyle of students of medical universities, coupled with active introduction of electronic educational resources, information and communication technologies and development of a digital environment, pose a challenge of maintaining psycho-emotional wellbeing of students. This problem is especially relevant among students with myopia since, inter alia, the increasing visual load has a potential adverse effect on their mental and emotional health. Objective: to give a hygienic characteristic of electronic information and educational environment and to assess its risk on students’ mental health with myopia of varying degrees. Materials and methods: We assessed intensity of the educational process of 1,100 first to third-year students (aged 17 to 25 years) of the Orenburg State Medical University and analyzed data on the type, frequency and purpose of their using information and communication tools for study and leisure. We also conducted a questionnaire-based survey of 168 healthy students and 138 students with myopia to assess their mental health and determine the type of character accentuation, the anxiety level, and negative emotional experiences in educational and everyday life. Results: We observed very intensive educational activities of the medical students against the background of the use of electronic gadgets by every second student for educational purposes lasting up to 4.8 hours a day and additional visual load due to the use of a mobile phone by 93.6 % of students to visit social network sites more than five times a day with the total duration for every third person ranging from 25 to 50 minutes a day. We established that the presence and degree of myopia determined the anxious-pedantic type of character accentuation and a 1.3-fold increase in the anxiety level in everyday activities. In educational activities, it resulted in a 1.7-fold decrease in the level of anxiety and a 1.3-fold increase in the level of negative emotional experiences. Conclusion: We established mental health risk factors of intense educational activities and an extensive use of information and communication tools by the students, including those with myopia, for study and leisure. Our findings prove the necessity of a differentiated approach to hygienic examination and regulation of various types of activities of the educational process in order to prevent the development and progression of myopia in medical university students.

Food safety vs health and safety

Food safety vs health and safety

Regulation-based probabilistic substance quality index and automated geo-spatial modeling for water quality assessment

Natural environments are recognized as complex heterogeneous structures thus requiring numerous multi-scale observations to yield a comprehensive description. To monitor the current state and identify negative impacts of human activity, fast and precise instruments are in urgent need. This work provides an automated approach to the assessment of spatial variability of water quality using guideline values on the example of 1526 water samples comprising 21 parameters at 448 unique locations across the New Moscow region (Russia). We apply multi-task Gaussian process regression (GPR) to model the measured water properties across the territory, considering not only the spatial but inter-parameter correlations. GPR is enhanced with a Spectral Mixture Kernel to facilitate a hyper-parameter selection and optimization. We use a 5-fold cross-validation scheme along with R^2-score to validate the results and select the best model for simultaneous prediction of water properties across the area. Finally, we develop a novel Probabilistic Substance Quality Index (PSQI) that combines probabilistic model predictions with the regulatory standards on the example of the epidemiological rules and hygienic regulations established in Russia. Moreover, we provide an interactive map of experimental results at 100 m2 resolution. The proposed approach contributes significantly to the development of flexible tools in environment quality monitoring, being scalable to different standard systems, number of observation points, and region of interest. It has a strong potential for adaption to environmental and policy changes and non-unified assessment conditions, and may be integrated into support-decision systems for the rapid estimation of water quality spatial distribution.

Determination of prohibited ketone flavors in infant’s cosmetics by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A rapid screening method of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for five banned ketone fragrances in infant cosmetics has been established. The sample was ultrasonically extracted with acetonitrile, concentrated by nitrogen blowing. Methanol and 0.1% formic acid aqueous solution were used as mobile phases, and separated by gradient elution of HP C18 chromatographic column, and qualitative and quantitative by mass spectrometer. The results showed that the 5 banned ketone fragrances presented a good linear relationship within the mass concentration range of 0.5ug/kg∼50.0ug/kg, and the correlation coefficient r2>0.9983; the detection limit was 0.03ug/kg∼6.25ug/kg, and the limit of quantification is 0.1ug/kg∼ 0.5ug/kg; the average recovery rate of standard addition is between 84.3%∼ 100.6%, and the RSD is between 1.3%∼3.8%. This LC-MS/MS method is suitable for the rapid screening of 5 banned ketone fragrances in complex matrix infant cosmetics, and has the advantages of high recovery rate, low detection limit, and good precision. It can be used to further supplement and improve the technical support for hygiene regulations and quality supervision of banned ketones in cosmetics infant’s cosmetics.

Occurrence, serovars and antibiotic resistance of Salmonella spp. in retail ready-to-eat food products in some Chinese provinces

Ready-to-eat (RTE) food products have been involved in numerous outbreaks of salmonellosis; however, epidemiological studies and data concerning Salmonella spp. contaminants of these foods are lacking in China. During 2015.6–2016.6, a total of 300 retail RTE food products were collected from 15 provincial capitals of China to determine the prevalence of Salmonella spp. and investigate serovar distribution and antibiotic resistance of the recovered isolates. Overall, seven (2.3%) of the food samples were contaminated by Salmonella spp. and the MPN values ranged from 0.3 to >110 MPN/g. Of the 26 recovered Salmonella isolates, eight serovars and eight MLST patterns were detected, with Salmonella enterica serovar Derby ST40 being the most prevalent. All isolated Salmonella serovars have previously been implicated in human infections. Eighty percent of the isolates were resistant to at least one antibiotic class, and thirty percent were multidrug-resistant. The isolates had the highest resistance rates to tetracycline (70.0%), with tet(A) at 60.0% and tet(B) at 10.0%. The occurrence of Salmonella spp. and the high antibiotic-resistance rates of the isolates detected in the RTE foods could be potential human health risks. These results indicate that further supervision and hygienic regulations are needed in the RTE food production chain to ensure microbiological safety.

SARS-CoV-2 transmission during an indoor professional sporting event

Sporting events with spectators can present a risk during the COVID-19 pandemic of becoming potential superspreader events that can result in mass-infection amongst participants—both sportspeople and spectators alike. In order to prevent disease transmission, many professional sporting bodies have implemented detailed hygiene regulations. This report analyzes SARS-CoV-2 transmission during a professional sports event (2nd division professional basketball in Germany). Whilst social distancing in this context is not always possible, the rate of infection was significantly reduced by wearing face masks that cover the mouth and nose. There was no infection amongst individuals who continuously wore medical particle filter masks (Category KN95/FFP2 or higher) during this sporting event.

Indicators of soil and snow mass exposed to deicing agents for improving the system of hygienic regulation and pollution control

The potential danger of long-term accumulation of salts and negative impact on the objects of the environment exposed to their influence, dictates the need to prepare the material that will be in demand for the implementation of measures to control the use of deicing materials (DIM). The following parameters were analyzed: electrical conductivity (EC); concentrations of Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl− ions; heavy metals and semi-metals (HMS) in the soil and snow mass. The total soil contamination indicator (Zc) and the sodium adsorption ratio in the soil solution (SAR) werecalculated, the results were statistically processed. Indicators and their critical values for the soil and snow mass are proposed in order to regulate the use of deicing reagents (DIR) based on easily soluble salts.

Biowastes of slaughterhouses and wet markets: an overview of waste management for disease prevention.

Slaughterhouse and wet market wastes are pollutants that have been always neglected by society. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than three billion and nineteen million livestock were consumed worldwide in 2018, which reflects the vast amount and the broad spectrum of the biowastes generated. Slaughterhouse biowastes are a significant volume of biohazards that poses a high risk of contamination to the environment, an outbreak of diseases, and insecure food safety. This work comprehensively reviewed existing biowaste disposal practices and revealed the limitations of technological advancements to eradicate the threat of possible harmful infectious agents from these wastes. Policies, including strict supervision and uniform minimum hygienic regulations at all raw food processing factories, should therefore be tightened to ensure the protection of the food supply. The vast quantity of biowastes also offers a zero-waste potential for a circular economy, but the incorporation of biowaste recycling, including composting, anaerobic digestion, and thermal treatment, nevertheless remains challenging.

Digital Health Literacy About COVID-19 as a Factor Mediating the Association Between the Importance of Online Information Search and Subjective Well-Being Among University Students in Vietnam

Introduction: Digital health literacy (DHL) has recently been proposed as a means of enabling healthy decisions for protective behavior, preventive measures, and adherence with COVID-19 policies and recommendations especially in the era of the “infodemic”. This study aimed to (1) identify COVID-19 related DHL and its association with online information seeking; (2) to elucidate COVID-19 related DHL as a mediator predictor between the importance of online information search and its association with subjective well-being among Vietnamese university students.Methods: A cross-sectional web-based survey was used to elicit the responses of Vietnamese students over 2 consecutive weeks (from April 25 to May 9, 2020, n = 1,003, 70.1% female students, mean age 21.4 ± 3.1). The online survey questionnaire collected data on the sociodemographic characteristics of participants, DHL about COVID-19, information seeking behavior, and subjective well-being. Mediation analysis was conducted using the importance of searching COVID-19 related information as independent variables, subjective well-being as a dependent variable, and DHL as a mediator variable.Results: Among 1,003 students, the mean (SD) of DHL related to COVID-19 was 2.87 ± 0.32. In the survey, 87.2% of the students reported sufficient well-being, while almost 13% reported low or very low well-being. The findings also indicated that search engines were the most popular platform for information seeking by Vietnamese students (95.3%) and 92.8% of participants had searched for information related to the current spread of COVID-19. Not searching for hygiene regulation as part of infection control and an average level of information satisfaction were associated with limited DHL (p < 0.05). The importance of online information searching related to COVID-19 increased the subjective well-being of students significantly and limited DHL (p < 0.05). DHL was found to mediate the relationship between the importance of online information searching and the subjective well-being of students.Conclusion: The finding provides insight into DHL about COVID-19 among university students, and their ability to find, understand, appraise, and use online health related information during lockdown throughout the first COVID-19 pandemic wave. DHL should be highlighted as a mediating factor that enhances the positive effect of the importance of information seeking on psychological well-being. However, further studies are needed to better define the mediating role of DHL across other factors.

Tribologisches Einsatzverhalten von PVD-Festschmierstoffsystemen im fluidfreien Wälzkontakt

For special applications, the lubrication of gearboxes with liquid lubricants is not feasible. Liquid lubricants lose their positive lubricating properties when exposed to high contact stress and temperature fluctuations, for example. In the food industry and medical technology, liquid lubricants are often not permitted due to hygiene regulations. Solid lubricants offer an approach to implement dry tooth contacts. In this report, three different solid lubricant coating systems are investigated under different operating conditions. The focus of the experi mental investigation is the application behavior in terms of friction force and wear behavior. In a direct comparison, the MoS2:Ti-TiN coating system achieves the highest load level and exhibits a station ary frictional force behavior compared to the a-C:H:Ti-TiN coating system. In the wear investigation, continuous coating wear was found in addition to coating delamination. The layer wear correlates with an increasing friction force in interval operation.

Informatization of education: medical and social problems, technologies for hygienic safety students training

Introduction. The digitalization of education in the Russian Federation accompanied by the intensive use of digital tools in children and adolescents’ education and leisure activities actualizes the problems of preserving the health of the younger generation. The aim of the study was to assess the current medical and social problems of informatization of education and the formation of approaches to the hygienic regulation of the main risk factors for the health of students, to determine the technologies for ensuring their hygienic safety in the digital environment. Materials and methods. The expert and analytical research were carried out using scientific publications, Internet resources, normative and methodological documents showing the features of the organization of educational activities of students in the digital environment, the technology of ensuring their hygienic safety. Results. It shows the high degree of development of the digital environment in the Russian education system; a diverse arsenal of digital educational resources and services that are most in demand by participants in the educational process; prospects for the modernization and development of education in the course of the introduction of the digital educational environment (DEE). The new digital environment can negatively impact the lifestyle and behavior of children and adolescents and contribute to the formation of additional risk factors for their health. In the context of the increased informatization of the educational process and the active use of electronic learning tools (ESE), there is an increase in the information load and psychoemotional overstrain in children and adolescents, an increase in various forms of information dependence, borderline mental disorders and behavioural disorders, the prevalence of school-related conditions and diseases. Conclusion. Among the measures related to the safety of the use of digital technologies and means of their provision in the educational and leisure activities of children, the implementation of technologies aimed at assessing the main risk factors for children’s health in the developing digital environment and the prospects for the development of hygienic rationing; compliance with hygiene regulations and rules of work when using ESO; training and education of children, parents and teachers; expertise of educational programs and technologies; monitoring the effectiveness of the implementation of DEE.

A probabilistic model for risk assessment and predicting the health risk of occupational exposure to pesticides in agriculture

Introduction. The main point is the influence of a complex of chemical and physical stressors on agricultural machine operators. The processes of occurrence and interaction of harmful factors are probable. Markov processes are a convenient model that can describe the behaviour of physical processes with random dynamics. Purpose of the work: was to develop a probabilistic model of risk assessment for agriculture workers during the application of pesticides based on Markov processes’ theory and evaluate with the help of the developed model the probability of occurrence, the degree of severity and the prediction of the different influence of adverse factors on the operator. Materials and methods. The mechanized treatment of pesticide is presented in the form of a system, the states of which are ranked according to the degree of danger to the operator: from non-dangerous to dangerous. The transition occurs under the influence of negative factors and is characterized by the probability of pij transition. Based on the marked graph of the system states, a stochastic matrix P[ij] of transition probabilities was constructed in one step. There are formulas by which it is possible to calculate the state of systems in k steps for a homogeneous and non-homogeneous Markov chain. Results. Based on Markov chains’ theory, the system’s behaviour is modelled when using single-component preparations based on imidacloprid for rod spraying of field crops. Received vector of probabilities of possible hazardous conditions for the employee after each hour of spraying within 10 hours. After 6 hours of working, the probabilistic risk for the operator to stay in a non-dangerous state is about 50 %, and the probability risk of going into a dangerous - at 24 %. The stationary probability distribution results show the inevitability of the transition to a hazardous state of the system if enough steps have been taken. Conclusion. With this model, you can supplement the operator’s health risk assessment system, analyze, compare and summarize the results of years of research. The calculated statistical probabilities can be used in the development of new hygiene regulations with using pesticides.

On the hygienic scientific provision of the Water strategy of the Russian Federation

Increased competition between producers has now become one of the critical features of the country’s economy. Within the framework of the Water Strategy of the Russian Federation, technological issues play a significant role both in the protection of water resources and in compliance with the safety requirements and favourable quality of the water used. For more than 20 years worldwide, there has been a transition from a hazard-oriented to a risk-oriented approach in the organization of nature and water protection activities. The use of a risk-based approach determines the mandatory monitoring of all pollutants and calculation methods for assessing various types of toxicity of a substance, their hazardous concentrations based on knowledge of the structure and information about the hazard of substances from international databases and registers. Based on the analysis of the main provisions of the Water Strategy of the Russian Federation until 2020 in conjunction with the conditions of water use affecting the health of the population, the priority problems of technological development in the water protection sector and their medical and preventive support were identified. Measures have been outlined to ensure the compliance of the technology for the protection of water bodies, sources of household and drinking water supply to the population and industrial development for monitoring the effectiveness and efficiency of hygienic regulation, sanitary and epidemiological examination of project documentation and a risk-oriented approach to ensuring the activities of business entities on the territory of sanitary protection zones of drinking water sources: water supply, wastewater treatment from point and diffuse sources of pollution.

Безпека праці при виконанні робіт із пестицидами: стан правового забезпечення

The article is devoted to the analysis of the current state of legal protection of labor protection when performing work with pesticides, as well as the formulation on its basis of conclusions and proposals aimed at improving the current legislation in this area. It is established that the process of updating labor legislation is currently underway in Ukraine. In particular, through the adoption of regulations governing the rules of labor protection when working with certain types of chemicals (for example, ammonium nitrate). As a result of the study of current legislation in the field of labor protection when working with pesticides, it was concluded that the basic documents (State Sanitary Rules 8.8.1.2.001-98 «Transportation, storage and use of pesticides in the national economy» and State Sanitary Rules and Norms 8.8.1.2.3.4-000-2001 «Permissible doses, concentrations, quantities and levels of pesticides in agricultural raw materials, foodstuffs, air of the working area, atmospheric air, water of reservoirs, soil») are not able to regulate properly appropriate relations due to the obsolescence of their provisions. The main shortcomings of State Sanitary Rules 8.8.1.2.001-98 are determined: references in its content to already invalid regulations on labor protection, inconsistency with modern developments in the field of hygiene and toxicology of pesticides; unreasonably detailed regulation, which results in an excessive burden on business entities and leads to formalism in the implementation of the provisions of this document by employers; incorrect «rigid» regulation of the choice of personal protective equipment for work with pesticides. The directions of improvement of the legislation in the field of labor protection at performance of works with pesticides are defined. Among them: introduction of a risk-oriented approach to the organization of labor protection, including in the field of agriculture; borrowing positive international experience in the field of awareness of stakeholders on the hygienic regulation of pesticide use, the necessary safety measures for work with the use of such substances. Keywords: occupational safety, dangerous production factor, labor protection regulations, labor protection, pesticides, legal support, agriculture