Ventilatory function in workers exposed to tea and wood dust.

Abstract

Changes in ventilatory capacity during the work shift were studied in workers exposed to tea dust in two tea-packing plants, wood dust in two furniture factories, and virtually no dust in an inoperational power station. The FEV, and FVC in workers exposed to dust were found to decline during the work shift by a small but significant volume. The MMFR, Vmax 50% and Vmax 75%were too variable to display any trend. No dose-response relationship could be discerned between the fall in workers' ventilatory capacity and the concentration of airborne dust or microbes to which they were exposed. Bronchodilators could reverse the fall in FEV1.Many non-allergenic dusts of vegetable or animal origin have been shown to affect acutely the ventilatory capacity of exposed workers. McKerrow et alt found that dust in cotton mills suppressed the "indirect maximum breathing capacity" (IMBC) and increased airway resistance during the working day. These findings were later confirmed2 3 and others observed that the FEVo.75, FEV1, or forced vital capacity (FVC) were similarly affected in workers exposed to flax dusts,45 cotton dust,6 7 hemp dust,8 9 and jute dust.10 11 These changes were at one time considered to be byssinotic symptoms even though they occurred also in non-byssinotic subjects. In the past decade, however, workers' FEV1 and FVC in particular were found to decline on exposure to dusts in industries where byssinosis does not occur, such as in coal-mines,12 and in wool13 and tobacco processing factories.14 Similar changes tended to occur in other, occasionally more sensitive but at the same time less reproducible, indices of ventilatory function, such as the maximum midexpiratory flow rate (MMFR), peak-flow (PF), and flow volume curves (Vmax 25 %, Vmax 500%, and Vmax 75 %). Recently, Anderson et al15 showed that the FEV1 fell by a small but significant amount in people who had been rebreathing very high concentrations (2-25 mg/m3) of inert carbon-coated plastic particles for several hours in an exposure chamber.Evidence suggests that the decline in ventilatory

Lung function in Pakistani wood workers

“…Liou et al (1996) demonstrated that the pulmonary function parameters MMF, PEFR, and FEF 25% were significantly lower in the exposed workers than in controls for both smokers and non-smokers and also showed a declining trend with increasing exposure levels. Similarly, Al Zuhair et al (1981), Holness et al (1985), Carosso et al (1987), Herbert et al (1995), and Schlunssen et al (2002) showed a cross-shift decrease in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV 1 ) among wood workers.…”

Work-related symptoms and dose-response relationships for personal exposures and pulmonary function among woodworkers

“…Occupational exposure to wood dust has been well documented as a cause of adenocarcinoma of the nasal and paranasal sinuses [Acheson et al, 1968;Franklin, 1982;IARC, 1995;Ironside and Matthews, 1975;Leclerc et al, 1994], mucostasis [Wilhelmsson and Drettner, 1984], eye and skin irritation [Woods and Calnan, 1976], rhinitis and asthma [Enarson and Chan-Yeung, 1990;Gandevia and Milne, 1970], deterioration of respiratory effects [Al Zuhair et al, 1981;Carrosso et al, 1987;Goldsmith and Shy, 1988;Rastogi et al, 1989;Shamssain, 1992;Whitehead et al, 1981], and fibrosis of the lungs [Michaels, 1967]. Previous studies have reported dose-response relationships between respiratory function and dust exposure among woodworkers [Holness et al, 1985;Liou et al, 1996].…”

Circadian rhythms in peak expiratory flow rate in workers exposed to cotton dust.

“…There is no evidence that any other variable would have correlated with amplitude but is excluded from the regression because of its relationship with variables already selected. Accord- Table 3 Amplitude and acrophase (time ofday) ofthe circadian rhythm in peak expiratory flow rate in groups of participants selected according to various criteria (p < 0.001 for all rhythms) [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Symptom free office staff Cinkotai, Sharpe, Gibbs ing to the Mann-Whitney non-parametric test (table 4) the mean amplitude in cotton workers claiming to suffer from bronchitic symptoms was significantly higher than their symptom free counterparts (p < 0.04), as was the amplitude in older cotton workers compared with that of their younger colleagues (p < 0-02). The mean amplitude in female cotton workers was higher than in men but this difference was not significant.…”