Epidemiological Study On The Pulmonary Function Abnormalities Of Rush Mate Processing Workers

Objective: Rush mat processing workers are often exposed to serious dust pollution, causedserious lung damage, such as Rush Pneumoconiosis. The Rush Pneumoconiosis is a serious stageof pulmonary damage. This study is aimed to explore the impact of dust exposure and smoking onlung function of rush mat processing workers, and aimed to find methods to protect the pulmonaryhealth of workers.Methods:10mat-processing plants, which have finished Occupational Health Declaration,are selected. Dust pollution status of the plants is investigated and is compared with their historyinformation.200workers of the10plants are selected as the exposure group and200before-jobworkers are selected, as control. The two groups are the same considering age, place of origin, etc.A questionnaire is conducted and physical examination is done on the workers. The effect of dustexposure and smoking on workers pulmonary function is analyzed. Epidata3.1and SAS9.1areused for data entry and analysis.Results: Respiratory dust concentration of rush-classifying, rush-picking and weaving were2.820.13mg/m~3,2.480.10mg/m~3,1.830.31mg/m~3respectively, which are higher than ChineseOccupational Exposure Limit (OEL, maximum allowable concentration is0.7mg/m~3, PC-TWA).Cases of FEV.1%of exposure group which are less than80%are more than the ones of controlgroup. The FEV.1%of the two groups are significantly different (t=-7.49, P <0.01). FEV.1%ofworkers decreases with dust exposing years increases (r=-0.499, P=0.008). Smoking and dustexposure have synergistic effects on pulmonary function (F=31.72, P<0.01). According to GBZ/T229.1-2010, G values of rush-classifying post and rush-picking post were11.2and7.5, can beclassified as Moderate Hazard. G value of weaving post is5.4, Can be classified as Mild Hazard.Then a regression equation between the upper limit of accumulated dust amount of lgd andcumulative abnormal rate of pulmonary function is got: logit (P)=9.714lgd-20.137(F=40.06,P0.001).If the abnormality of pulmonary function is fixed at11.1%, the average working hours ofthe industry is fixed at10hours a day, the occupational life of the industry fixed at30years,workplace respiratory dust concentration should not be higher than0.4mg/m~3.Conclusion: Dust pollution of rush mat processing has been improved compared with thesituation years ago, but still has a long way to go. Compared with OEL, dust pollution control should be further strengthened. Pulmonary function index, FEV.1%for example, can be a goodindex for protection of rush mat processing workers pulmonary health. Both dust exposure andsmoking can cause pulmonary damage. Their synergistic effect is greater than the separate ones.There is a dose-response relationship between dust pollution and pulmonary function abnormalityamong non-smokers.0.4mg/m~3, a respiratory dust concentration standard for rush mat processingworkplace, can be a good standard for dust pollution control of the industry.