Department of Occupational Medicine, Hospital of South West Jutland, University Hospital of Southern Denmark, Finsensgade, Esbjerg, Denmark.
Department of Public Health, Section of Environment, Occupation and Health, Danish Ramazzini Centre, Aarhus University, Bartholins Alle, Aarhus C, Denmark.
Ann Work Expo Health. 2021 Nov 9;65(9):1029-1039. doi: 10.1093/annweh/wxab034.
Occupational exposure to wood dust can cause respiratory diseases, but few studies have evaluated the impact of declining exposure on health outcome. This study aimed to investigate whether a decline in wood dust exposure between two cross sectional studies performed in 1997-1998 and 2003-2004 was related to the prevalences of respiratory symptoms among woodworkers in a well-defined geographical area.
Two thousand and thirty-two woodworkers from 54 plants in study 1 and 1889 woodworkers from 52 plants in study 2 returned a questionnaire on respiratory diseases and symptoms, employment and smoking habits. Current individual wood dust exposure level was assessed from 2 study specific job exposure matrix's based on task, factory size and personal passive dust measurements (2217 in study 1 and 1355 in study 2).
The median (range) of inhalable dust was 1.0 mg/m3 (0.2-9.8), 0.6 mg/m3 (0.1-4.6) in study 1 and study 2, respectively. In study 2, the prevalence's of self-reported asthma was higher and the prevalence's of respiratory symptoms were lower compared to study 1. In adjusted logistic regression analyses using GEE methodology to account for clustering, dust exposure level could explain the differences in prevalence of coughing, chronic bronchitis and nasal symptoms between study 1 and study 2, while no effect was found for asthma.
A 40% decline in wood dust exposure in a 6 year period may serve as an explanation for the decline in most respiratory symptoms, but do not seems to impact the prevalence of self-reported asthma.
职业性接触木粉尘可导致呼吸道疾病，但鲜有研究评估接触水平下降对健康结局的影响。本研究旨在探讨 1997-1998 年和 2003-2004 年两次横断面研究中，木工个体木粉尘暴露水平下降是否与特定地理区域内木工人群呼吸道症状的患病率相关。
在研究 1 中，54 家工厂的 2032 名木工和研究 2 中，52 家工厂的 1889 名木工分别填写了一份关于呼吸道疾病和症状、就业及吸烟习惯的调查问卷。根据特定于两项研究的任务、工厂规模和个人被动粉尘测量值，评估当前个体木粉尘暴露水平（研究 1 中 2217 人，研究 2 中 1355 人）。
研究 1 和研究 2 中可吸入粉尘的中位数（范围）分别为 1.0mg/m3（0.2-9.8）和 0.6mg/m3（0.1-4.6）。与研究 1 相比，研究 2 中报告哮喘的患病率更高，呼吸道症状的患病率更低。采用广义估计方程（GEE）方法进行调整后，在考虑聚类的情况下，粉尘暴露水平可以解释研究 1 和研究 2 之间咳嗽、慢性支气管炎和鼻部症状患病率的差异，但对哮喘的患病率无影响。
6 年内木粉尘暴露水平下降 40%，可能可以解释大多数呼吸道症状的下降，但似乎不会影响自我报告哮喘的患病率。
