BYSSINOSIS IN COTTON GINNERIES IN GREECE

The prevalence of byssinosis in a sample of cotton ginnery workers in Greece was investigated. The respiratory symptoms, F.E.V._1·0, and V.C. of 70 male ginnery workers were recorded. No case of clinical byssinosis was found, but a statistically significant relationship exists between years of exposure to cotton dust and impairment of lung function. On the contrary no significant relationship exists between smoking and lung function, or between sputum production and lung function. The findings suggest the hypothesis that the cotton dust may exert, in the case of a prolonged exposure, a chronic deleterious action without producing the typical symptoms of clinical byssinosis.     

BYSSINOSIS AND OTHER RESPIRATORY SYMPTOMS IN FLAX WORKERS IN NORTHERN IRELAND

A study of byssinosis and other respiratory symptoms in 2,528 flax workers aged 35 years and over in Northern Ireland is reported. This represented 82·5% of the total available population. Only 3% of workers were not seen because of absence or a refusal to co-operate. Workers were interviewed using a questionnaire based on the Questionnaire on Respiratory Symptoms (Medical Research Council, 1960a) with additional questions relating to respiratory symptoms at work.

Byssinosis was found in workers in all stages of the industry, though its prevalence was highest in flax preparers; wet spinners and wet polishers did not appear to be at serious risk of developing the condition. When the effects of other relevant factors had been allowed for, e.g., age, duration of employment, and smoking habits, differences between the prevalence in the two sexes were found to be very small. The associations between byssinosis and the age of workers and their durations of employment in flax-preparing occupations were complex, and it was thought that a selective discharge of affected workers before the study might, in part at least, explain the absence of marked associations between these variables.

Marked associations were found between both chronic bronchitis and exertional dyspnoea and the type of occupation in the mill. Workers in the early preparing occupations had a considerably higher prevalence of these conditions than expected on a null hypothesis. There were also marked associations between byssinosis and bronchitis, and between byssinosis and dyspnoea. The possible importance of these associations with regard to the aetiology of byssinosis is discussed, and it is suggested that byssinosis represents an acute, specific effect of certain textile dusts on the respiratory system, superimposed on a non-specific chronic bronchitic process.

     

VENTILATORY CAPACITY CHANGES ON EXPOSURE TO COTTON DUST AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO BYSSINOSIS IN AUSTRALIA

The same plan of investigation as was used in a previous study of jute workers (Gandevia and Milne, 1965) has been applied to a survey of 50 workers in the blowroom and carding and spinning area of a Sydney cotton mill. Significant decreases in ventilatory capacity were recorded on Friday, Monday, and the following Thursday, with, on the average, complete `overnight' recovery, as indicated by similar morning values. Slightly, but not significantly, greater differences were observed in seven subjects with mild byssinotic symptoms and in five subjects with an observed productive cough on request. No effect of sex, shift, or history of cough and sputum was demonstrable. By contrast with the jute workers, no influence of smoking habit was apparent. The larger decreases in ventilatory capacity were observed in those with the higher F.E.V.<sub>1·0</sub>:F.V.C. ratios, whereas the reverse trend was noted in the jute workers. The occurrence of significant large decreases in those employed in the industry for less than a month, in conjunction with other evidence, suggests that a factor of `self-selection' may be operative among cotton employees in this country and may be related to the apparently low prevalence of clinically important byssinosis. Attention is drawn to two different patterns of change of ventilatory capacity over a week in subjects exposed to dusts sometimes associated with symptoms of byssinosis; the relationship of these changes and of chronic bronchitis to the development of clinical byssinosis is discussed.     

退休棉工肺部X线表现Logistic回归分析

本文用Logistic回归方法分析了50名工龄20年以上的退休棉工肺部X线表现,并与性别、年龄、吸烟史配对的50名对照工比较。X线胸片按国际尘肺分类法(1980)读片,以间质纤维改变的密集度在1/0及以上者为表现异常。结果两组各有9和11例表现异常。Logistic回归分析结果表明,吸烟能显著地影响胸部X线表现异常的发生概率(P=0.000001),性别、年龄和接尘工龄则依次在运算过程中被剔除。     

棉纺车间空气中可吸尘,内毒素浓度与工人呼吸道反应

本文对338名棉工进行了呼吸道反应调查.并测定了车间空气中粉尘浓度及内毒素浓度.发现前纺车间可吸尘浓度在O.18～1.62m g/m~3,内毒素浓度在94.91～2682.18ng/m~3,棉尘有关症状(包括棉尘病症状和不典型症状)和慢性支气管炎患病率均比对照组高,且与车间粉尘和内毒素浓度呈正相关.与5年前比较,可吸尘或内毒素累积接触量高的男、女工人FEV_1下降均较累积接触量低者明显。     

REPETITION INJURY IN PROCESS WORKERS

Process workers' arm is a common and disabling (but preventable) condition particularly affecting female migrant factory workers employed in occupations requiring rapid repetitive movements. The syndrome encompasses a range of musculo-tendinous lesions of the hand, wrist, arm, elbow, shoulder and neck. Symptoms and disability are often out of proportion to physical signs.     

VENTILATORY CAPACITY IN FLAX WORKERS IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Of 2,528 persons aged 35 years and over who were interviewed during a survey of Northern Ireland flax mills, 2,003 (79%) carried out tests of one-second forced expiratory volume (F.E.V._1·0) and forced vital capacity (F.V.C.) which were suitable for analysis. The omission of the remaining 525 workers is discussed in the text.

The object of this paper is to compare each of these two measurements of ventilatory capacity between preparers and non-preparers of flax in this industry.

Many factors, other than job, may influence ventilatory capacity; these include sex, smoking habits, the area of the mill, the type of fibre handled, byssinotic grade, age, and stem height. Within each sex and job, workers were divided into eight basic groups according to whether they did or did not smoke, whether the mill was in a town or rural area, and whether the mill processed only flax or flax plus synthetic fibres. Within each of these basic groups of non-byssinotic non-preparers, regression equations of the typeY = a + b₁X₁ + b₂X₂where Y = predicted F.E.V._1·0 or F.V.C. (litres), X₁ = age (years), X₂ = stem height (cm.), and a, b₁ and b₂ are constants derived from the data, were calculated for non-byssinotic non-preparers. These equations were used to predict the F.E.V._1·0 and F.V.C. of byssinotic and non-byssinotic preparers in each basic group, for each sex separately. The average predicted ventilatory capacity of preparers was then compared with the corresponding averaged observed ventilatory capacity.

It was found that (1) byssinotic flax preparers had a lower mean F.E.V._1·0 and F.V.C. than did comparable groups of non-byssinotic non-preparers, (2) non-byssinotic preparers had a lower average F.E.V._1·0 than did non-byssinotic non-preparers, (3) there is some evidence that preparers with symptoms of grade I or II byssinosis had a lower F.E.V._1·0 than did preparers with no, or only slight, symptoms of byssinosis (grades 0 and ½ respectively).

     

A SURVEY OF DUST CONCENTRATIONS IN FLAX MILLS IN NORTHERN IRELAND

The concentrations in the air of total and of respirable (less than 7 microns equivalent diameter) dust were measured in 142 workrooms of 17 Northern Ireland flax spinning mills using a hexhlet air sampler.

Neither the distribution of total nor of respirable dust concentrations (mg./100 m.³ air) measured in each of four large workrooms conformed to the normal (or Gaussian) distribution, but it is shown that the logarithms (to the base 10) of these concentrations are normally distributed. In order to make valid statistical comparisons between the dustiness of the different types of room, mean log. concentrations are therefore used.

The mean log. concentrations of total and of respirable dust, and the 95% confidence limits derived from these, were calculated for each room surveyed. For total and respirable dust the ranges of mean log. concentrations followed in brackets by the respective antilogs. (mg./100 m.³ air) were as follows: [Table: see text] Thus, dust concentrations varied widely within each category of room, although in general the pre-preparing rooms had the highest levels followed by other preparing rooms, other finishing rooms, and wet finishing rooms, in that order.

     

动脉血氧分压在尘肺劳动能力鉴定中的地位

通过４１５例Ⅰ期煤工尘肺（ＣＷＰ）的动脉血氧分压（ＰａＯ２）和肺功能测定资料分析，提示在常规通气功能及肺容量测定基础上加测ＰａＯ２，将能提高８．４０％阳性检出率（占总阳性检出率的２２．０５％），因此认为，ＰａＯ２在尘肺劳动能力鉴定中占有一定的重要地位。     

补充铁对铁缺乏纺织女工生产效率的影响

采用铁剂与安慰剂组间相互对照的双盲干预试验研究方法,将80名19至44岁患有铁缺乏非妊娠期的女工随机分配于铁剂组或安慰剂组,跟踪10至12周,观察干预前后血生化指标,工作时间及业余时间总能量消耗,产量,生产效率的变化。 铁剂治疗后平均血红蛋白上升13g/L,血清铁蛋白上升20.3μg/L,红细胞游离原卟啉下降293μg/L,工作时间总能量消耗下降467kJ/d,生产效率增加0.32元/MJ。自身对照t检验及与安慰剂组比较的组间t检验均显示铁剂治疗前后以上各种变化显著。     

影响铅接触工人神经行为功能的因素

在使用ＷＨＯ神经行为核心测试组合对８３名铅接触人工和３３名对照组工人进行了神经行为功能的测试及血铅含量测定的基础上，采用协方差分析和分元逐步回归方法，分析了血铅值、专业工龄、年龄、性别、受教育年限等因素对工人神经行为功能的影响。     

陶瓷厂矿工人死因队列研究

为评价陶瓷厂矿工人中癌症和其他疾病的死亡率，对江西及湖南的八个陶瓷厂矿共１２９４４人队列进行研究，追访到１９９４年底，共计２７５７０１．８人年，死亡２２９０人，全死因标化死亡率与全国居民平均水平持平，死亡超高的疾病主要是肺结核，非恶性呼吸系疾病，心知管疾病和肝癌。影响工人寿命的主要疾病是恶性肿瘤，心血管疾病，非恶性呼吸系疾病和脑血管疾病。     

男性铅作业工人生殖内分泌激素的变化

观察９１名蓄电池厂男性铅作业工人和４０名服装厂（非铅接触对照组）男性工人生殖同分泌激素ＦＳＨ、ＬＨ、ＰＲＬ和Ｔ的血清浓度。结果：铅作业工人血铅水平显著高于对照（Ｐ〈０．０１）。低铅负荷组（ＢＰｂ２５－４０μｇ／ｄｌ）ＨＬ含量明显低于对照组，且Ｔ也有降低的现象。提示较低的铅负荷对男性内分泌功能有干扰作用。