The Effects Of Different Ambient Particle Matters On Pulmonary Dysfunction

Ambient air particles is one of the most important indicators of environmental pollution. Particulate matter (PM) is solid or liquid granular material dispersed in the air. Inhalable particulate matter (PM10) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) are common PM. Many previous studies have shown that exposure levels of PM were closely related to the increase of incidence and mortality of respiratory disease for residents. PM exposures were reported to induce or aggravate respiratory disease, defense responses of airway, such as increase mucus secretion, increase bronchial hyper responsiveness, and aggravate incompletely reversible block of airway. These changes in the respiratory system can be reflected by the changes of lung function.Lung function is an important index of reflecting the state of lung and respiratory function. It has been reported that the exposure levels and duration of PM had an effect on pulmonary function. In this study, we determine PM levels in two communities in Wuhan and a pottery factory. On the basis of monitoring environmental PM and pulmonary function for exposed participants, the degree of influencing pulmonary function with different exposure levels of environmental PM were compared.The results showed that PM10concentrations in Wuhan city ranged from0.034mg/m3to0.034mg/m3, with an average of0.173±0.080mg/m3, and PM2.5concentrations ranged from0.031mg/m3to0.319mg/m3, with an average of0.106±0.049mg/m3. PM10and PM2.5were far higher than the average air concentration limits of community environment required by 《ambient air quality standard》(GB3095-2012)(PM10:0.070mg/m3, PM2.5:0.035mg/m3). It is suggested that ambient PM pollution in Wuhan is serious.We found that annual average concentrations of PM10and PM2.5in Hanyang were slightly higher than Hankou. When we compared ambient PM concentrations in different seasons, we found that PM10and PM2.5concentrations in autumn and PM2.5concentrations in spring in Hankou were higher than those of Hanyang. The PM10and PM2.5concentrations in other seasons in Hanyang were higher than those in Hankou. In Hanyang, the levels of PM2.5in autumn and winter were significantly higher than spring and summer, while the level of PM10was minimum in summer and the levels of PM10in spring, autumn and winter were close. The trend of PM levels change in Hankou was similar to Hanyang. The levels of PM2.5in autumn and winter were significantly higher than those in spring and summer, and the level of PM10was also lowest in summer in Hankou. The results suggested that the PM concentrations were related to meteorological conditions. The surface temperature in spring and summer are higher than autumn and winter owing to the influence of geographical environment and climate in Wuhan. The temperature difference between surface and atmosphere will affect the speed of air flow, so the air diffusion is larger in spring and summer. In addition, in Wuhan, rainfall which can reduce the levels of PM in the air is more in spring and summer. Combustion and heating are also the reasons of higher level of PM in autumn and winter.The concentrations of PM produced in the process of production are far higher than the concentrations of community environment, even if we took various measures to reduce dust concentration in the pottery factory, PM concentration of work place is more than15times of community.Pulmonary function were conducted on800subjects from community in Wuhan and800workers in a pottery factory. The participants were matched with age and gender. We found pottery workers’main indexes of pulmonary function were lower than community subjects, the proportion of lung dysfunction in pottery factory (85.5%) was higher than community in Wuhan (51.5%), restrictive ventilatory disorder was most among pulmonary ventilatory disorder. It is speculated that it is related to the decrease of lung compliance induced by pulmonary inflammatory reaction or fibrosis caused by PM exposure. We determined pulmonary function injury in accordance with 《the labor ability appraisal-workers’disability grade of industrial injury and occupational disease》(GB/T16180-2006), the result was pottery workers’ pulmonary function injury rate (76.5%) was higher than community residents (26.9%) and the difference was statistically significant. It showed high level productive PM had an more serious effect on pulmonary function.This study confirmed that PM’s effect on pulmonary function and provided basic data for evaluating health hazard of respiratory caused by PM.