Environmental and risk assessment with HAZOP method of hazardous heavy metals in men health by reproductive management indexes ,Case studies: Mercury and Cadmium in miner workers in Semnan-Iran

Background: Of the 92 naturally occurring elements approximately 30 metals are potentially toxic to humans. These are toxic metals having density 5 times greater than water. The information on the mostimportant environmental sources of metal exposure and their risk assessment has mainly been collected from toxicological profiles issued by the ATSDR, unless stated otherwise Material and Method: In this study the risk assessment (by HAZOP method) was based on twomajor epidemiological groups of worker men which has been investigated the relationship between maternal exposures to mercury and cadmium through high consumption of contaminated environmentalparameters such as: polluted water. Result: In miner workers with mean urinary mercury of 27 μg g-1 creatinine and mean blood mercuryof 9.5 μg L-1, exposed for an average of 10 years to mercury vapour, cumulative mercury exposure positivelycorrelated with serum total testosterone, but not with free testosterone. In another group of workers with urinary mercury of 71.2 μg g-1 creatinine, no significant association was found between urinary mercury levels and the parameters of reproductive endocrine function.Two reproductive epidemiologicalstudies of male miner workers occupationally exposed to Cadmium also yielded contradictory results. Although impotence and lack of sexual desire was higher in the exposed than control group, nosignificant difference was found in other reproductive outcomes between the groups. In another group of workers, which consisted of workers, electric welders in mechanical fields and welders in shipbuilding,a significantly lower sperm count and percentage of total viable sperm was found comparing to control group. Conclusion: Generally, heavy metals cannot be removed from environment and when they enter into the soil, interfere with the plant roots - these plants when eaten by animals or humans they enter into food chain. These contamination are important and of concern because of increasing demand for food safety

کلیدواژه ها:

Risk ، Assessment ، Environmental ، HAZOP ، Miner ، Health