Nair A J, Nandini M, Adappa S, Mahabala C
1 Department of Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Mangalore, India.
2 Department of Biochemistry, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Mangalore, India.
Toxicol Ind Health. 2017 Jan;33(1):46-52. doi: 10.1177/0748233716654071. Epub 2016 Aug 19.
Currently, in India, air pollution is widespread in urban areas where vehicles are major contributors. The aim of this study was to investigate the level of exposure in traffic police officers exposed to vehicle exhaust for less than 8 h/day. The specific objective of the study was to determine the levels of carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb) in these officers. The effect of exposure for 8 h/day is known, but shorter durations of chronic exposure need to be investigated, and there is a need to explore the policy options in this exposed population. This cross-sectional study, included non-smoking traffic police officers between 30 and 50 years of age working for more than 2 years in busy traffic junctions. The cases were sex matched with controls of same age group, working in offices at a teaching hospital. Venous blood was collected at the end of 3 h of duty for estimation of COHb among both the groups. The COHb levels were expressed as percentage values. Differences between the COHb levels among the traffic police officers and office workers were analysed using the Mann-Whitney U test and considered significant at p < 0.05. Traffic police officers had significantly elevated COHb levels compared with the controls; 76.5% of traffic police officers had COHb >2.5% compared with no office workers at this level and 41.2% of the police officers had COHb levels >4%. Overall, 53.8% of officers with COHb >2.5% reported headaches compared with 15.8% of officers with COHb <2.5%.
目前，在印度，空气污染在车辆是主要污染源的城市地区广泛存在。本研究的目的是调查每天暴露于车辆尾气不足8小时的交通警察的暴露水平。该研究的具体目标是测定这些警察的碳氧血红蛋白（COHb）水平。每天暴露8小时的影响是已知的，但慢性暴露时间较短的情况仍需研究，并且有必要探索针对这一暴露人群的政策选择。这项横断面研究纳入了年龄在30至50岁之间、在繁忙交通路口工作超过2年的非吸烟交通警察。病例在性别上与同年龄组在教学医院办公室工作的对照组相匹配。两组人员在执勤3小时结束时采集静脉血以测定COHb。COHb水平以百分比值表示。使用曼-惠特尼U检验分析交通警察和办公室工作人员之间COHb水平的差异，p<0.05时被认为具有显著性。与对照组相比，交通警察的COHb水平显著升高；76.5%的交通警察COHb>2.5%，而对照组无此水平者，41.2%的警察COHb水平>4%。总体而言，COHb>2.5%的警察中有53.8%报告有头痛症状，而COHb<2.5%的警察中这一比例为15.8%。
