Occupational lung disease in wood workers

An occupational history gives a clue to the arrival of diagnosis. However; rather unexpected relation between exposure and disease may also occur in occupational medicine. Three cases are studied. The lesson of these cases is not the difficulties in diagnosis and being too late for treatment; but that it could have been prevented if doctors and supervisors instill into the minds of the workers that any work involving dust must be engaged in only with the use of a protective dust mask

Noise induced hearing loss

Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) is most often an occupational induced deafness which has no treatment to reverse the effects of noise. High noise levels have been recorded in many manufacturing establishments in Seychelles; and 33 per cent of pure tone audiograms done early NIHL in workers - similar to figures in both the developed and the developing world. NIHL is the most widespread industrial disease. The site of damage is the organ of Corti; initially causing a temporary threshold shift (TTS); but with further exposure to noise the hearing loss becomes permanent. Some degree of deafness often accompanied by tinnitus are the clinical result; characterized by a 4KHz dip in audiometry. There are also non-auditory non specific effects of noise. The only answer to NIHL is prevention by instituting occupational hearing conservation programmes at worksites. Doctors too should motivate workers to wear hearing protection

A review of the effects of wood dust and vapours at work

There are 350 carpenters in the Seychelles. Most of them do not wear dust masks or safety glasses or overalls. Nor is the dust locally extracted at the machine itself. Three of these carpenters in the single year were suspected having lung cancer. Ultimately two of the diagnoses were confirmed whilst; the third was found to be a pneumoconiasis. The use of modern machinery; which produces very fine dust particles; without the use of the protective apparel which is compulsory in the developed world; is likely to have been an important contributory factor to these 3 mens' respiratory diseases