Effects Of Hard Metal Dust Exposure On Lung Function And Biological Indicators In Blood And Urine In Workers

Objective 1) To evaluate the effects of hard alloy dust exposure on lung function in workers, and to understand the concentration of cobalt and tungsten in blood and urine and the concentration of IgE、SP-A、SP-D、KL-6 inthe serum.2) To explore the feasibility of the concentration of cobalt and tungsten in blood and urine as the hard alloy dust exposure indicator and the concentration of IgE、SP-A、SP-D、KL-6 inthe serum as the hard alloy dust exposure effect indicators. 3)To analyze the correlation between pulmonary function, concentration of cobalt in blood and urineconcentration of tungsten in blood andurine,andthe serum protein concentration, to provide reference for health surveillance of workers exposed to hard alloy dust.Methods Choosing 960 workers from four hard alloy production enterprises as the object in Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province. Collecting basic information and occupational history of the workers by using the questionnaire survey.Pulmonary function of workers wereexamined,blood and urine samples were collected to examine concentration of cobalt in blood and urineconcentration of tungsten in blood and urine and the concentration of IgE, SP-A, SP-D, KL-6 in serum. The observation group and control group were divided by dust exposure. The observation group is divided into threegroups (beforesintering, sintering and aftersintering)according to the nature of exposure to dust. And it can also divided into different groups by the type of work. Evaluating the status of lung function, the cobalt tungsten level in blood and urine, the protein level in serum and correlation analysiswas carried out on the indicators.Results 1)Pulmonary function test results were in the normal range in both the observation group and control group. Compared with control group, the pulmonary ventilation function indexesin the observation group decreased after controlling confounding factors such as smoking, age, and length of service. And Before the sintering ball grinder, sintering fashion boat type of work and packing work after sintering pulmonary ventilation function and small airway function decrease obviously.2) The concentration of cobalt, tungsten in blood and urine were higher than normal crowd in both the observation group and control group. Compared with control group, the concentration of cobalt in urineincreased in the observation group and the difference was statistically significant, but there was no statistically significant difference in concentration of cobalt in bloodand concentration oftungsten in urine. The concentration of cobalt in urine and the concentration of cobalt blood cobalthadcorrelation (r=0.570).The concentration of four proteins in serum were within the normal range in both the observation group and control group. But there were differences between these two groups with statistical significance. There still need to further study about the effect of serum markers.Conclusion The pulmonary ventilation function can damaged for exposed the hard metal dust. The concentration of cobalt and tungsten in blood and urine can reflect the hard dust exposure of workers within a certain range. Firstly we must do a good job in the workplace for occupational health protection.Secondly the laborers need to improve personal awareness of occupational safety and consciously take the initiative to do a good job personal protection, focus on strengthening the mixing, ball milling, drying, pressing, packing types of occupational health surveillance, do a good job shop door and personal protection.