Rastogi S K, Gupta B N, Chandra H, Mathur N, Mahendra P N, Husain T
Epidemiology Division, Industrial Toxicology Research Center, Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Lucknow, India.
Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 1991;63(1):21-6. doi: 10.1007/BF00406193.
A random sample of 342 workers engaged in chipping and grinding of agate stones were surveyed in a cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of respiratory morbidity in the agate industry. The findings were compared with those obtained in controls. The study showed a significantly higher prevalence of lung diseases among agate workers than among controls (63.4% vs 35.5%, P less than 0.001). The respiratory morbidity in agate workers and controls was maximal in the group aged 31+ years (83.3% and 42.2%, respectively). The prevalence of pneumoconiosis in agate workers (18.4%) was highly significant as compared with controls, in whom not a single case was found (P less than 0.001). However, there was no significant difference between the prevalence of pneumoconiosis in men and women of the exposed group (17.9% vs 19.6%). Among the cases of pulmonary diseases in agate workers, pneumoconiosis formed the largest group (18.4%), whereas among controls it was tuberculosis (12.1%). The prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis was very high in both agate workers and controls (15.5% and 12.1%, respectively), probably because of poor socio-economic and unhygienic living conditions. The prevalence of chronic bronchitis was found to be higher among the control population as compared with the exposed group (6.7% vs 2.6%). It therefore appeared that agate dust had no role in precipitating chronic bronchitis. However, bronchial asthma appeared to have been aggravated due to agate dust, as the risk among agate workers was 7-fold that found among the controls. The prevalence of pneumoconiosis showed a dose-response relationship in both male and female agate workers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
在一项横断面研究中，对342名从事玛瑙石切片和打磨工作的工人进行了随机抽样调查，以评估玛瑙行业呼吸道疾病的患病率。将研究结果与对照组的结果进行比较。研究表明，玛瑙工人的肺部疾病患病率显著高于对照组（63.4%对35.5%，P<0.001）。玛瑙工人和对照组的呼吸道疾病患病率在31岁及以上年龄组中最高（分别为83.3%和42.2%）。玛瑙工人的尘肺病患病率（18.4%）与对照组相比具有高度显著性，对照组未发现一例尘肺病（P<0.001）。然而，暴露组男性和女性的尘肺病患病率之间没有显著差异（17.9%对19.6%）。在玛瑙工人的肺部疾病病例中，尘肺病占最大比例（18.4%），而对照组中则是肺结核（12.1%）。玛瑙工人和对照组的肺结核患病率都非常高（分别为15.5%和12.1%），这可能是由于社会经济状况差和生活条件不卫生所致。与暴露组相比，对照组人群中慢性支气管炎的患病率更高（6.7%对2.6%）。因此，似乎玛瑙粉尘在引发慢性支气管炎方面没有作用。然而，由于玛瑙粉尘，支气管哮喘似乎有所加重，因为玛瑙工人的患病风险是对照组的7倍。男性和女性玛瑙工人的尘肺病患病率均呈现剂量反应关系。（摘要截短至250字）
