Beritić-Stahuljak D, Valić F, Zuskin E
Andrija Stampar School of Public Health, Medical Faculty, University of Zagreb.
Acta Med Croatica. 1991;45(4-5):283-95.
A survey of chronic respiratory symptoms was undertaken in 1127 asbestos workers engaged in asbestos mining, asbestos cement production, production of friction materials or in the manufacture of asbestos textile. A control group of 593 persons was also surveyed. The exposure of asbestos workers was analysed by evaluating separately the cumulative exposure to total airborne particles and to airborne asbestos fibres. The prevalences of all the respiratory symptoms (chronic cough, chronic phlegm, chronic bronchitis, dyspnoea grade 3+) were significantly higher in asbestos workers compared to controls in both nonsmokers and smokers (p less than 0.01). The prevalences of all the respiratory parameters in asbestos workers increased with both the length of employment and cumulative exposure to total airborne particles. Prevalences of chronic cough, chronic phlegm and chronic bronchitis did not show an increase with cumulative exposure to airborne asbestos fibres expressed as fibres/cc years. It is concluded that the development of chronic cough, chronic phlegm and chronic bronchitis in asbestos workers is likely to be an unspecific effect of the exposure to the difficulty soluble airborne particles rather than a specific effect of the exposure to airborne asbestos fibres.
对1127名从事石棉开采、石棉水泥生产、摩擦材料生产或石棉纺织品制造的石棉工人进行了慢性呼吸道症状调查。还对593人的对照组进行了调查。通过分别评估空气中总颗粒物和空气中石棉纤维的累积暴露量，分析了石棉工人的暴露情况。在不吸烟者和吸烟者中，石棉工人所有呼吸道症状（慢性咳嗽、慢性咳痰、慢性支气管炎、3级及以上呼吸困难）的患病率均显著高于对照组（p<0.01）。石棉工人所有呼吸道参数的患病率均随就业年限和空气中总颗粒物的累积暴露量增加而增加。慢性咳嗽、慢性咳痰和慢性支气管炎的患病率并未随以纤维/立方厘米·年表示的空气中石棉纤维累积暴露量增加而增加。结论是，石棉工人慢性咳嗽、慢性咳痰和慢性支气管炎的发生可能是接触难溶性空气中颗粒物的非特异性效应，而非接触空气中石棉纤维的特异性效应。
