ABSTRACr A study of the health of 78 workers in an iron and steel foundry in Vancouver, British Columbia, was carried out and the results compared with those found in 372 railway repair yard workers who were not significantly exposed to air contaminants at work. The foundry workers were exposed to PepSet, which consists of diphenyl methane diisocyanate (MDI) and phenol formaldehyde and their decomposition products as well as to silica containing particulates. A questionnaire was administered by trained interviewers, and chest radiography, allergy skin tests, pulmonary function tests, and methacholine inhalation tests were carried out as well as measurement levels of dust and MDI. Compared with the controls, the foundry workers had more respiratory symptoms and a significantly lower mean FEV, and FEF2,-,,% after adjustments had been made for differences in age, height, and smoking habit. Three workers (4.8%) had radiographic evidence of pneumoconiosis and 12 (18-2%) had asthma defined as presence of bronchial hyperreactivity, cough, and additional respiratory symptoms such as wheeze, chest tightness, or breathlessness. Sensitisation to MDI is probably the cause of asthma in these workers.After several workers in a foundry in Vancouver had been admitted to hospital with acute dyspnoea in the previous six months, the labour union requested the occupational diseases research unit of the University of British Columbia to conduct a health study in 1981. The foundry housed all operations within one building including metal melting, mould and core making, pouring of molten metal into moulds, shaking out casts from moulds, and grinding of irregularities from casts. The workers were exposed to several air contaminants including sand containing silica, metal dust, and chemicals used as binders for mould and core making, as well as a variety of gaseous emissions derived from the thermal decomposition of the chemical binders. The latter included carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, carbonyl sulphide, hydrogen sul-
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