Badirdast Phateme, Rezazadeh Azari Mansour, Salehpour Soussan, Ghadjari Ali, Khodakarim Soheila, Panahi Davod, Fadaei Moslem, Rahimi Abolfazl
College of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center, College of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Tanaffos. 2017;16(1):53-59.
Occupational exposure to dust leads to acute and chronic respiratory diseases, occupational asthma, and depressed lung function. In the light of a lack of comprehensive studies on the exposure of Iranian workers to wood dusts, the objective of this study was to monitor the occupational exposure to wood dust and bioaerosol, and their correlation with the lung function parameters in chipboard manufacturing industry workers.
A cross-sectional study was conducted on chipboard workers in Golestan Province; a total of 150 men (100 exposed cases and 50 controls) were assessed. Workers were monitored for inhalable wood dust and lung function parameters, i.e., FVC, FEV, FEV/FVC, and FEF. The workers' exposure to bioaerosols was measured using a bacterial sampler; a total of 68 area samples were collected. The analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and regression statistical tests.
The geometric mean value and geometric standard deviation of inhalable wood dust for the exposed and control groups were 19 ± 2.00 mg/m and 0.008 ± 0.001 mg/m, respectively. A statistically significant correlation was observed between the lung parameters and cumulative exposure to inhalable wood dust, whereas a statistically significant correlation was not observed between the lung parameters and bioaerosol exposure. However, the exposure of Iranian workers to bioaerosols was higher, compared to their foreign coworkers.
Considering the high level of exposure among workers in this study along with their lung function results, long-term exposure to wood dust may be detrimental to the workers' health and steps to limit their exposure should be considered seriously.
职业性接触粉尘会导致急慢性呼吸道疾病、职业性哮喘以及肺功能下降。鉴于缺乏对伊朗工人接触木尘的全面研究，本研究的目的是监测刨花板制造业工人的职业性木尘和生物气溶胶接触情况，以及它们与肺功能参数的相关性。
对戈勒斯坦省的刨花板工人进行了一项横断面研究；共评估了150名男性（100名暴露病例和50名对照）。对工人进行了可吸入木尘和肺功能参数监测，即用力肺活量（FVC）、第一秒用力呼气容积（FEV）、FEV/FVC和用力呼气流量（FEF）。使用细菌采样器测量工人对生物气溶胶的接触情况；共采集了68个区域样本。采用曼-惠特尼检验、克鲁斯卡尔-沃利斯检验和回归统计检验进行分析。
暴露组和对照组可吸入木尘的几何平均值和几何标准差分别为19±2.00mg/m³和0.008±0.001mg/m³。观察到肺参数与可吸入木尘的累积接触之间存在统计学显著相关性，而肺参数与生物气溶胶接触之间未观察到统计学显著相关性。然而，与外国同事相比，伊朗工人对生物气溶胶的接触更高。
考虑到本研究中工人的高接触水平及其肺功能结果，长期接触木尘可能对工人健康有害，应认真考虑采取措施限制他们的接触。
