Study On The Effects Of Glue On Physical And Mental Health Of Shoe-manufacturing Workers

In recent years, with the further economic reform and opening-up policy going thorough, shoe-making enterprises have been developed rapidly. China has become the largest country of the world which makes and exports shoes. More and more people are engaging in making shoes. These shoe-manufacturing enterprises bring about a lot of harmful factors to workers, So people gradually recognize the occupational hazards in this field. The glue used in the process of shoe-making is the most hazardous factor. Recently our country pays more attention to occupational hazards caused by glue. This study was carried out to learn the status of the occupational hazards in shoe-making enterprises, and to study the adverse effects of glue on mental, physical, social health of the shoe-making workers, so as to provide theoretical evidence for improving occupational health condition.Two hundred and thirty-one shoe-making workers were selected from a medium-sized shoe factory by cluster sampling, and 131 workers who were never exposed to benzene, toluene, xylene, N-hexane and so on from anther factory were selected as control group. The composition of the age, sex, length of service, education degree and so on of the two groups were similar. Some subjects were selected randomly from the two groups and to take iv blood for study.Occupational epidemiology was used to investigate the working environment and physical and mental health of the workers.The air temperature, humidity, wind velocity, noise of the working environment and the concentration of benzene, toluene, xylene, N-hexane, acetone, acetoacetate in the workshop were detected. The items of investigation on physical and mental health included general information, rational symptom, function of autonomic nerve and sensory nerve, blood routine, conjugated bilirubin , serum protein , glutathione-s-transferase(GST), malondialdehyde(MDA), reproductive functions, state of mental health.The results suggested that the average concentrations of benzene and N-hexane were higher than the hygienic standard of our country. The workers in the study group reported higher prevalence of self-reported health complaints (headache, dizzness, fatigue, and depression et al) than those in the control group(P<0.05). The thresholds of seimesthesia, analgia, thigmesthesia in the study group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.05,except analgia) . All of them were decreased with the increasing of exposure time and correlated positively with exposure time (P<0.05) .The positive rate of dermographism and difference of dermal temperature in the study group were higher than those in the control group (P<0.05). White blood cell, red blood cell, hemoglobin, globulin in the peripheral blood of the shoe-making workers were lower, while conjugated bilirubin was higher than the control group.All the indices were within the range of reference values. The concentrations of GST and MDA in the peripheral blood serum of the study group were increasing with the length of service and higher than those of the control group. The incidence rates of dysmenorrhea, pregnant complication, spontaneous abortion of the female workers in the study group were higher than the control group CP<0.05) . All factorial scores and positive items of SCL-90, scores of SAS, scores of CESD and the incidence rate of anxiety, depression were higher than the control, and the differences were statistically significant (F< 0.05). In the study group, all factorial scores and positive items of SCL-90of the female were higher than those of the male (P<0.05,except phobic anxiety, psychotic thoughts). All scores of SAS and SCl-90 in the study group were increasing with the exposure time (P<0.05).In general, the glue used in the shoe factory has adverse effects on the physical and mental health of the shoe-making workers. We suggest that the shoe factories should reduce the concentrations of hazardous materials in the air to accord with our country hygienic standard. Factories should increase investment on protection facilities of occupational health. Ventilation facilities should be installed in the working places. Factories should supply the workers with qualified individual protective equipment. Occupational health training should be carried out for the workers. Labor protection should be carried out for women workers.