A cross‐sectional study of pulmonary function among workers exposed to multimetals in the glass bangle industry

Abstract

Spirometric lung functions were evaluated in 220 asymptomatic glass bangle workers exposed to the salts of various heavy metals, such as arsenic, lead, zinc, copper, manganese, cobalt, cadmium, and selenium, which are used as coloring agents in the manufacture of glass bangles. The mean values of various spirometric variables (viz. FVC, FEV1, IMBC, and PEFR) were within normal range (more than 80% of the predicted values) in both smoking and nonsmoking glass bangle workers and did not reveal any significant differences in comparison with those observed in the unexposed controls. However, variables such as FEV1/FVC% ratio, FEF25-75 and FEF75-85 were reduced significantly (p less than 0.001) in the exposed group. The reduction was more marked in the smoking glass bangle workers indicating additive effect of cigarette smoking on the small airways. The exposed group showed a significantly higher prevalence (16.3%) of respiratory impairment in comparison to that observed in the controls (7.9%) as a result of exposure to various metals in the work environment (p less than 0.01). The respiratory impairment observed in the exposed group indicated primarily restrictive pattern of pulmonary abnormality (10.4%), while the controls revealed only 1.1% prevalence of this disease (p less than 0.001). The effect of the duration of exposure on the prevalence of respiratory impairment in the glass bangle industry revealed significantly higher prevalence (p less than 0.05) in those who worked for more than 10 years (23.0%) than in those who worked for less than 10 years (10.8%) thereby indicating that the duration of exposure is directly related to the prevalence of respiratory impairment.

Predicting and partitioning ozone fluxes to maize crops from sowing to harvest: the Surfatm-O<sub>3</sub> model

“…Moreover, O 3 is well known to have deleterious effects on materials, human health and plants (PORG, 1997). Indeed, O 3 is responsible for damages on polymeric materials such as rubbers, but also on textiles, dyes, surface coatings, metals and buildings materials (Lee et al, 1996;Massey, 1999;Ahmad et al, 2000;Almeida et al, 2000;Boyce et al, 2001) and causes deleterious impacts to human health, including lung inflammation, reduction in lung function, respiratory diseases, and mortality (Rastogi et al, 1991;Uysal and Schapira, 2003;Bell et al, 2005;Ito et al, 2005;Levy et al, 2005;Targer et al, 2005;Hazucha and Lefohn, 2007). On vegetation, O 3 slows-down the stomatal closing, decreases the photosynthetic capacity and alters plant biomass and leaf area, although these effects depend on species, canopy structure and age of tissues (Paoletti, 2005;Paoletti and Grulke, 2005;Ainsworth, 2008;Wittig et al, 2009).…”

Street Peddlers and Poor Respiratory Health Outcomes in Lucknow, India

“…24 Exposure to ozone with other heavy metals may result into respiratory failures. 25,26 Hence long term exposure to PM, harmful compounds and heavy metals present in air can be the reason to increasing incidence of asthma, emphysema, and even lung cancer. 27,28 The study observed one or the other symptoms and signs of upper and lower respiratory problems and eye irritation among all the study participants and proposes the utilization of appropriate respiratory defensive gear among street peddlers in Lucknow, India.…”

A Trace Metal Survey of Non-Occupationally Exposed Gauteng Residents

“…lead, copper, zinc, selenium, manganese) [4,5]. Workers from a wide range of industries are exposed daily to metals, from battery factories to lead and cadmium [6], glass industry to selenium [7,8], welders to chromium and nickel [7,9], ceramic workers to manganese [10] and jewellers to silver [7]. Generally, reference values are established in a representative sample of an unexposed population where the upper and lower limits of metal levels are determined statistically based on the distribution of the levels measured.…”