We investigated how different doses of microwave irradiation (MR) affect seed germination in Sorg... more We investigated how different doses of microwave irradiation (MR) affect seed germination in Sorghum, including the level of remediation against textile and surgical wastewater (WW) by modulating biochemical and morpho-physiological mechanisms under glutamic acid (GA) application. The experiment was conducted to determine the impact of foliar-applied GA on Sorghum under wastewater conditions. Plants were treated with or without microwave irradiation (30 s, 2.45 GHz), GA (5 and 10 mM), and wastewater (0, 25, 50, and 100). Growth and photosynthetic pigments were significantly decreased in plants only treated with various concentrations of WW. GA significantly improved the plant growth characteristics both in MR-treated and -untreated plants compared with respective controls. HMs stress increased electrolyte leakage (EL), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and malondialdehyde (MDA) content; however, the GA chelation significantly improved the antioxidant enzymes activities such as ascorbate oxi...
The agriculture sector is the backbone of Pakistan and sources of employment for 45% people of lo... more The agriculture sector is the backbone of Pakistan and sources of employment for 45% people of low income population. The objective of this review was to analyze the economic perspective of sustainability in agriculture and environment of Pakistan. Pakistan ranks 77 in 109 countries on the Global food security index 2015 but its increase in the growth rate of agriculture is very slow, while resource consumption is equivalent to many developing and developed counties resulting in lack of sustainability in agriculture of Pakistan. Poorly managed canal irrigation system and livestock, excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers is deteriorating the public health, environment and sustainability. In Pakistan, poor efficiency of water, flood irrigation system, traditional cultivation techniques, excessive and improper use of pesticides and fertilizers, poor drainage of canal irrigation system, energy crises and poor governance are the challenges to attain environmental and agricultural su...
Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology, 2021
This is a retrospective analysis of annual reports on occupational injuries issued by the nationa... more This is a retrospective analysis of annual reports on occupational injuries issued by the national social insurance agency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for the years 2004 through 2016. For each criterion we calculated an index based on the equation NY/Nref x100, where NY is the number of occupational injuries by a specific criterion in a specific year Y, and Nref is the number of injuries in the corresponding criterion in the reference year, i.e. 2004. We also calculated the number of injuries to number of workers ratio (Ni/Nw ) for different occupations and economic sectors to get a clearer idea of the injury trends per worker. In terms of occupational injury rates (with respect to 2004), we observed increases in construction, financing & real estate (economic sectors), among engineers and technicians (occupations), in infections and secondary contusions (injury type), for upper and lower limbs (affected body parts), over falls and “other” causes. Most injuries occurred on ...
The increasing population, urbanization and industrial growth are causing serious environmental c... more The increasing population, urbanization and industrial growth are causing serious environmental challenges including air pollution worldwide. According to WHO, the indoor and outdoor air pollution exposure has caused around 7 million deaths globally only in 2012. The major air pollution sources include transportation and petrochemical based industry. Motor vehicle repair workshops (MVRW) pose many environmental as well as occupational health challenges. Workers safety and protection at workplace has been a great concern for employees, employers, governments and the entire society for years. This review article highlights the prominent air pollutants and health and safety challenges at MVRW. Many scientific articles studying pollutants that are detrimental to health e.g. benzene, PAHs, VOCs, heavy metals, PM, NOx and SOx are reviewed here. The national and international environmental legislations and health and safety standards by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA),...
journal of King Abdulaziz University - Meteorology, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture Sciences, 2018
Stress is our body’s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. It can start with simply ... more Stress is our body’s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. It can start with simply too much pressure. To estimate the occupational stress index (OSI) score among King Abdul Aziz University international students a simple questionnaire study, with 100% response rate, was conducted. KAU has largest number of students in the Kingdom. The study of stress, OSI score and stressors are accepted important tools for career and personality development and highlighting of students’ problems. The English version of OSI questioner (CHS M278/EHS M270: Work and Health; Winter 2004) used and descriptive research approach selected to calculate OSI score. A t-test performed between OSI score for each individual section and their relevant percentages. P values equal or less than 0.05 considered as significant. For data analysis SPSS and Microsoft Excel version 2013 was used. Total OSI score estimated was 38.3. Main contributing variables are uneasy lab work (32.6%) and decision-making at...
journal of King Abdulaziz University - Meteorology, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture Sciences, 2018
This study aimed to investigate the occupational accidents trends and their under-reporting estim... more This study aimed to investigate the occupational accidents trends and their under-reporting estimations in Pakistan during 1993-2009. Accident rates and Index value analysis method base on year 1993 used to compare the changing profile of occupational accidents. Occupational accidents underreporting (Ur) in non-reporting factories (NRFs) calculated by considering their proportional accident rate equal to the number of reported occupational accidents by RFs. Total 10330 occupational accidents investigated in RFs. Total 819 fatal accidents found with average fatality rate of 25 fatal accidents per 105 workers in RFs. Total 9511 non-fatal accidents found with an accident rate of 271 non-fatal accidents per 105 which was high (567 non-fatal accidents per 105) from 1993 to 1996. Occupational accidents Ur (77%) estimated three times higher than reported occupational accidents (23%) in RFs with their continuous increasing trend. This study concludes the weak organizational safety culture i...
International Journal of Occupational Safety and Health, 2017
Background: Occupational accidents in developing countries like Pakistan are obvious due to poor ... more Background: Occupational accidents in developing countries like Pakistan are obvious due to poor occupational health safety infrastructure. Objective: This retrospective study aimed to analyze the industrial accidents in factories of Pakistan during 1993-2009. Methods and Material: An index value calculation method used to investigate the trends of occupational accidents. Accident rate (103), fatal accident rate (105), and non-fatal accident rate (103) were also calculated. Pakistan Statistical Year Books published by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) used as data source.Results: Data of total 10330 industrial accidents analyzed and decreasing accident rate found with average 3.1 accident per 103 factory workers. Fatal accident increased with an average of 23 fatal accidents per 105 factories workers. Regarding the severity of industrial accidents, minor accidents found at 74% followed by serious (18%) and fatal accidents (8%). Decreased trends of index values and accident rates c...
Academic laboratories considered as more hazardous than industry due to relaxed approach of acade... more Academic laboratories considered as more hazardous than industry due to relaxed approach of academic management for chemical safety. This study designed to analyze the safe work practices and facilities by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) using Varimax rotation. A designed checklist of 26 safety items administered personally in 68 academic laboratories in a Saudi university. From EFA, five factors were extracted: “Availability of laboratory safety documents (5 items, α = 0.92)”, “Maintenance of fume hood (2 items, α = 0.75)”, “Proper chemical storage (3 items, α = 0.64)”, “Proper use of fume hood for chemical handling (4 items, α = 0.62)” and “Laboratory safety labelling (2 items, α = 0.73)”. The results revealed the 5 factors model that grouped 16 safety items that may be crucial for chemical storage, fume hood, laboratory safety plans and labels in the academic laboratories. The extracted factors derived from EFA are expected to help in the development of chemical safety manageme...
AbstractThis research paper describes the design and implementation of an autonomous room air co... more AbstractThis research paper describes the design and implementation of an autonomous room air cooler using fuzzy rule based control system. The rule base receives two crisp input values from temperature and humidity sensors, divides the universe of discourse into ...
Biogas potential was explored for animal manure, wheat straw, food waste and rice straw. Batch ex... more Biogas potential was explored for animal manure, wheat straw, food waste and rice straw. Batch experiments were performed at a laboratory scale using potential biomethane assays (BMP) for a period of 50 days. The biogas yield was observed higher when using rice straw (0.40 m3/kg VSadded) as a substrate, as compared to wheat straw (0.33 m3/kg VSadded) and animal manure (0.30 m3/kg VSadded) substrates. Around 10% of biogas was produced in the initial phase of 4 days for manure, wheat straw, and rice straw feedstocks. During the middle phase of 30 days for these feedstocks, 65 – 80% of biogas was produced. Less than 20% of biogas was produced during the final phase of last 16 days of the experiment. The biogas production from food waste was found lowest (0.02 m3/kg VSadded) among all substrates. Therefore, the anaerobic digestion (AD) of both food waste and animal manure is more suited in co-digestion fashion than mono-digestion.
The increasing population, urbanization and industrial growth are causing serious environmental c... more The increasing population, urbanization and industrial growth are causing serious environmental challenges including air pollution worldwide. According to WHO, the indoor and outdoor air pollution exposure has caused around 7 million deaths globally only in 2012. The major air pollution sources include transportation and petrochemical based industry. Motor vehicle repair workshops (MVRW) pose many environmental as well as occupational health challenges. Workers safety and protection at workplace has been a great concern for employees, employers, governments and the entire society for years. This review article highlights the prominent air pollutants and health and safety challenges at MVRW. Many scientific articles studying pollutants that are detrimental to health e.g. benzene, PAHs, VOCs, heavy metals, PM, NO x and SO x are reviewed here. The national and international environmental legislations and health and safety standards by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) Saudi Arabia have been mentioned and compared for air quality both outdoor and in occupational environment. Latest developments in ambient air pollution monitoring and occupational personals health risk assessment methods and strategies have also been reviewed coherently, including the prominent physical, chemical, biological, musculoskeletal and accidental safety hazards at MVRW. The current environmental challenges and perspectives for Saudi Arabia in terms of both ambient air pollution as well as in occupational settings are also discussed. The review ends with identifying gaps and limitations in monitoring and legislation in the subject area, and suggesting the way forward for Saudi Arabia including further research and development needed in the subject area.
The use of chemicals in academic/research laboratories is obvious which need proper university's ... more The use of chemicals in academic/research laboratories is obvious which need proper university's safety management. It is the prime responsibility of university top management to protect laboratory staff from chemical health risks during their work. This study elaborates a methodology for the implementation of a Chemical Health Risk Assessment (CHRA) program in a University's chemical laboratories. The objective of this CHRA program is to identify and evaluate the risks of chemical exposure among laboratory staff. The qualitative observation of CHRA program identified two categories of risk, one is a significant risk but already adequately controlled could increase in future, second is risk significant now, and not adequately controlled. Based on the conclusion of CHRA program proactive suggestions were made to reduce the risks of chemical exposure among laboratory staff. This study can be useful to implement CHRA program in chemical laboratories of a university to assess the risk of chemical exposure and required control measures for the protection of laboratory staff.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are the centerpiece of development efforts of the... more The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are the centerpiece of development efforts of the government of Pakistan. Forests in Pakistan cover 4.224 million hectares, 5.2 per cent of the total land area of 87.98 million hectares which has slightly shown an increase. Over 150,000 ha of former forestlands, since converted for non-forestry purposes have also reduced the forest cover. The MDG 2015 set targets for 2015 as 6 per cent forests cover including state and private farmlands.
The agriculture sector is the backbone of Pakistan and sources of employment for 45% people of lo... more The agriculture sector is the backbone of Pakistan and sources of employment for 45% people of low income population. The objective of this review was to analyze the economic perspective of sustainability in agriculture and environment of Pakistan. Pakistan ranks 77 in 109 countries on the Global food security index 2015 but its increase in the growth rate of agriculture is very slow, while resource consumption is equivalent to many developing and developed counties resulting in lack of sustainability in agriculture of Pakistan. Poorly managed canal irrigation system and livestock, excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers is deteriorating the public health, environment and sustainability. In Pakistan, poor efficiency of water, flood irrigation system, traditional cultivation techniques, excessive and improper use of pesticides and fertilizers, poor drainage of canal irrigation system, energy crises and poor governance are the challenges to attain environmental and agricultural sustainability. Therefore, a comprehensive policy, strong strategy and good governance at all levels, for efficient use of water and energy, proper use of pesticides, land management and modernization in cultivation techniques, is required for improvement in productivity and sustainability to achieve Pakistan Vision 2025.
We investigated how different doses of microwave irradiation (MR) affect seed germination in Sorg... more We investigated how different doses of microwave irradiation (MR) affect seed germination in Sorghum, including the level of remediation against textile and surgical wastewater (WW) by modulating biochemical and morpho-physiological mechanisms under glutamic acid (GA) application. The experiment was conducted to determine the impact of foliar-applied GA on Sorghum under wastewater conditions. Plants were treated with or without microwave irradiation (30 s, 2.45 GHz), GA (5 and 10 mM), and wastewater (0, 25, 50, and 100). Growth and photosynthetic pigments were significantly decreased in plants only treated with various concentrations of WW. GA significantly improved the plant growth characteristics both in MR-treated and -untreated plants compared with respective controls. HMs stress increased electrolyte leakage (EL), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and malondialdehyde (MDA) content; however, the GA chelation significantly improved the antioxidant enzymes activities such as ascorbate oxi...
The agriculture sector is the backbone of Pakistan and sources of employment for 45% people of lo... more The agriculture sector is the backbone of Pakistan and sources of employment for 45% people of low income population. The objective of this review was to analyze the economic perspective of sustainability in agriculture and environment of Pakistan. Pakistan ranks 77 in 109 countries on the Global food security index 2015 but its increase in the growth rate of agriculture is very slow, while resource consumption is equivalent to many developing and developed counties resulting in lack of sustainability in agriculture of Pakistan. Poorly managed canal irrigation system and livestock, excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers is deteriorating the public health, environment and sustainability. In Pakistan, poor efficiency of water, flood irrigation system, traditional cultivation techniques, excessive and improper use of pesticides and fertilizers, poor drainage of canal irrigation system, energy crises and poor governance are the challenges to attain environmental and agricultural su...
Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology, 2021
This is a retrospective analysis of annual reports on occupational injuries issued by the nationa... more This is a retrospective analysis of annual reports on occupational injuries issued by the national social insurance agency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for the years 2004 through 2016. For each criterion we calculated an index based on the equation NY/Nref x100, where NY is the number of occupational injuries by a specific criterion in a specific year Y, and Nref is the number of injuries in the corresponding criterion in the reference year, i.e. 2004. We also calculated the number of injuries to number of workers ratio (Ni/Nw ) for different occupations and economic sectors to get a clearer idea of the injury trends per worker. In terms of occupational injury rates (with respect to 2004), we observed increases in construction, financing & real estate (economic sectors), among engineers and technicians (occupations), in infections and secondary contusions (injury type), for upper and lower limbs (affected body parts), over falls and “other” causes. Most injuries occurred on ...
The increasing population, urbanization and industrial growth are causing serious environmental c... more The increasing population, urbanization and industrial growth are causing serious environmental challenges including air pollution worldwide. According to WHO, the indoor and outdoor air pollution exposure has caused around 7 million deaths globally only in 2012. The major air pollution sources include transportation and petrochemical based industry. Motor vehicle repair workshops (MVRW) pose many environmental as well as occupational health challenges. Workers safety and protection at workplace has been a great concern for employees, employers, governments and the entire society for years. This review article highlights the prominent air pollutants and health and safety challenges at MVRW. Many scientific articles studying pollutants that are detrimental to health e.g. benzene, PAHs, VOCs, heavy metals, PM, NOx and SOx are reviewed here. The national and international environmental legislations and health and safety standards by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA),...
journal of King Abdulaziz University - Meteorology, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture Sciences, 2018
Stress is our body’s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. It can start with simply ... more Stress is our body’s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. It can start with simply too much pressure. To estimate the occupational stress index (OSI) score among King Abdul Aziz University international students a simple questionnaire study, with 100% response rate, was conducted. KAU has largest number of students in the Kingdom. The study of stress, OSI score and stressors are accepted important tools for career and personality development and highlighting of students’ problems. The English version of OSI questioner (CHS M278/EHS M270: Work and Health; Winter 2004) used and descriptive research approach selected to calculate OSI score. A t-test performed between OSI score for each individual section and their relevant percentages. P values equal or less than 0.05 considered as significant. For data analysis SPSS and Microsoft Excel version 2013 was used. Total OSI score estimated was 38.3. Main contributing variables are uneasy lab work (32.6%) and decision-making at...
journal of King Abdulaziz University - Meteorology, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture Sciences, 2018
This study aimed to investigate the occupational accidents trends and their under-reporting estim... more This study aimed to investigate the occupational accidents trends and their under-reporting estimations in Pakistan during 1993-2009. Accident rates and Index value analysis method base on year 1993 used to compare the changing profile of occupational accidents. Occupational accidents underreporting (Ur) in non-reporting factories (NRFs) calculated by considering their proportional accident rate equal to the number of reported occupational accidents by RFs. Total 10330 occupational accidents investigated in RFs. Total 819 fatal accidents found with average fatality rate of 25 fatal accidents per 105 workers in RFs. Total 9511 non-fatal accidents found with an accident rate of 271 non-fatal accidents per 105 which was high (567 non-fatal accidents per 105) from 1993 to 1996. Occupational accidents Ur (77%) estimated three times higher than reported occupational accidents (23%) in RFs with their continuous increasing trend. This study concludes the weak organizational safety culture i...
International Journal of Occupational Safety and Health, 2017
Background: Occupational accidents in developing countries like Pakistan are obvious due to poor ... more Background: Occupational accidents in developing countries like Pakistan are obvious due to poor occupational health safety infrastructure. Objective: This retrospective study aimed to analyze the industrial accidents in factories of Pakistan during 1993-2009. Methods and Material: An index value calculation method used to investigate the trends of occupational accidents. Accident rate (103), fatal accident rate (105), and non-fatal accident rate (103) were also calculated. Pakistan Statistical Year Books published by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) used as data source.Results: Data of total 10330 industrial accidents analyzed and decreasing accident rate found with average 3.1 accident per 103 factory workers. Fatal accident increased with an average of 23 fatal accidents per 105 factories workers. Regarding the severity of industrial accidents, minor accidents found at 74% followed by serious (18%) and fatal accidents (8%). Decreased trends of index values and accident rates c...
Academic laboratories considered as more hazardous than industry due to relaxed approach of acade... more Academic laboratories considered as more hazardous than industry due to relaxed approach of academic management for chemical safety. This study designed to analyze the safe work practices and facilities by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) using Varimax rotation. A designed checklist of 26 safety items administered personally in 68 academic laboratories in a Saudi university. From EFA, five factors were extracted: “Availability of laboratory safety documents (5 items, α = 0.92)”, “Maintenance of fume hood (2 items, α = 0.75)”, “Proper chemical storage (3 items, α = 0.64)”, “Proper use of fume hood for chemical handling (4 items, α = 0.62)” and “Laboratory safety labelling (2 items, α = 0.73)”. The results revealed the 5 factors model that grouped 16 safety items that may be crucial for chemical storage, fume hood, laboratory safety plans and labels in the academic laboratories. The extracted factors derived from EFA are expected to help in the development of chemical safety manageme...
AbstractThis research paper describes the design and implementation of an autonomous room air co... more AbstractThis research paper describes the design and implementation of an autonomous room air cooler using fuzzy rule based control system. The rule base receives two crisp input values from temperature and humidity sensors, divides the universe of discourse into ...
Biogas potential was explored for animal manure, wheat straw, food waste and rice straw. Batch ex... more Biogas potential was explored for animal manure, wheat straw, food waste and rice straw. Batch experiments were performed at a laboratory scale using potential biomethane assays (BMP) for a period of 50 days. The biogas yield was observed higher when using rice straw (0.40 m3/kg VSadded) as a substrate, as compared to wheat straw (0.33 m3/kg VSadded) and animal manure (0.30 m3/kg VSadded) substrates. Around 10% of biogas was produced in the initial phase of 4 days for manure, wheat straw, and rice straw feedstocks. During the middle phase of 30 days for these feedstocks, 65 – 80% of biogas was produced. Less than 20% of biogas was produced during the final phase of last 16 days of the experiment. The biogas production from food waste was found lowest (0.02 m3/kg VSadded) among all substrates. Therefore, the anaerobic digestion (AD) of both food waste and animal manure is more suited in co-digestion fashion than mono-digestion.
The increasing population, urbanization and industrial growth are causing serious environmental c... more The increasing population, urbanization and industrial growth are causing serious environmental challenges including air pollution worldwide. According to WHO, the indoor and outdoor air pollution exposure has caused around 7 million deaths globally only in 2012. The major air pollution sources include transportation and petrochemical based industry. Motor vehicle repair workshops (MVRW) pose many environmental as well as occupational health challenges. Workers safety and protection at workplace has been a great concern for employees, employers, governments and the entire society for years. This review article highlights the prominent air pollutants and health and safety challenges at MVRW. Many scientific articles studying pollutants that are detrimental to health e.g. benzene, PAHs, VOCs, heavy metals, PM, NO x and SO x are reviewed here. The national and international environmental legislations and health and safety standards by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) Saudi Arabia have been mentioned and compared for air quality both outdoor and in occupational environment. Latest developments in ambient air pollution monitoring and occupational personals health risk assessment methods and strategies have also been reviewed coherently, including the prominent physical, chemical, biological, musculoskeletal and accidental safety hazards at MVRW. The current environmental challenges and perspectives for Saudi Arabia in terms of both ambient air pollution as well as in occupational settings are also discussed. The review ends with identifying gaps and limitations in monitoring and legislation in the subject area, and suggesting the way forward for Saudi Arabia including further research and development needed in the subject area.
The use of chemicals in academic/research laboratories is obvious which need proper university's ... more The use of chemicals in academic/research laboratories is obvious which need proper university's safety management. It is the prime responsibility of university top management to protect laboratory staff from chemical health risks during their work. This study elaborates a methodology for the implementation of a Chemical Health Risk Assessment (CHRA) program in a University's chemical laboratories. The objective of this CHRA program is to identify and evaluate the risks of chemical exposure among laboratory staff. The qualitative observation of CHRA program identified two categories of risk, one is a significant risk but already adequately controlled could increase in future, second is risk significant now, and not adequately controlled. Based on the conclusion of CHRA program proactive suggestions were made to reduce the risks of chemical exposure among laboratory staff. This study can be useful to implement CHRA program in chemical laboratories of a university to assess the risk of chemical exposure and required control measures for the protection of laboratory staff.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are the centerpiece of development efforts of the... more The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are the centerpiece of development efforts of the government of Pakistan. Forests in Pakistan cover 4.224 million hectares, 5.2 per cent of the total land area of 87.98 million hectares which has slightly shown an increase. Over 150,000 ha of former forestlands, since converted for non-forestry purposes have also reduced the forest cover. The MDG 2015 set targets for 2015 as 6 per cent forests cover including state and private farmlands.
The agriculture sector is the backbone of Pakistan and sources of employment for 45% people of lo... more The agriculture sector is the backbone of Pakistan and sources of employment for 45% people of low income population. The objective of this review was to analyze the economic perspective of sustainability in agriculture and environment of Pakistan. Pakistan ranks 77 in 109 countries on the Global food security index 2015 but its increase in the growth rate of agriculture is very slow, while resource consumption is equivalent to many developing and developed counties resulting in lack of sustainability in agriculture of Pakistan. Poorly managed canal irrigation system and livestock, excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers is deteriorating the public health, environment and sustainability. In Pakistan, poor efficiency of water, flood irrigation system, traditional cultivation techniques, excessive and improper use of pesticides and fertilizers, poor drainage of canal irrigation system, energy crises and poor governance are the challenges to attain environmental and agricultural sustainability. Therefore, a comprehensive policy, strong strategy and good governance at all levels, for efficient use of water and energy, proper use of pesticides, land management and modernization in cultivation techniques, is required for improvement in productivity and sustainability to achieve Pakistan Vision 2025.
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Papers by Mohsin Abbas