Effect of Occupational Lead on Male Sex Hormones / 대한산업의학회지

OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to evaluate the relationship between biological markers of lead exposure and level of sex hormones in men occupationally exposed to lead. METHODS: In this study, 33 male workers who employed at smelting and battery factories were compared with 33 male workers who were not exposed to lead. As biological markers of lead exposure, hemoglobin, ZPP, blood lead and urine lead were measured. As sex hormones, FSH, LH, testosterone, SHBG and FTI were determined. RESULTS: Hemoglobin level was significantly lower in exposed than in nonexposed group. Level of ZPP, blood lead, and urine lead were significantly higher in exposed than in nonexposed group. There was a trend that level of FSH, testosterone, SHBG, and FTI was lower in exposed than in nonexposed group respectively, but there were no statistical significance. In exposed group, FSH level was correlated with age, ZPP, and blood lead; testosterone level was correlated with hemoglobin, blood lead, urine lead, and SHBG; and FTI level was correlated with age. CONCLUSIONS: Level of some sex hormones were lower in exposed than in nonexposed group but there were no statistical significance between the exposed and the nonexposed group. But level of sex hormones were correlated with several biological markers of lead in exposed group. It suggests that occupational lead exposure might affect sex hormones.

An Epidemiologic Study on the Health Hazards of Inhabitants chronically exposed to Glass Fiber / 한국역학회지

Fiberglass, as a substitute of asbestos, is used for more than 60 years as a insulator material. Health hazards including irritation of skin, mucosa and respiratory system associated with use of fiberglass is reported. Many studies on the fibrogenicity and carcinogenicity of fiberglass was conducted but evidence is not sufficient to confirm the carcinogenicity or fibrogenicity. Authors studied the health hazards among 152 inhabitants(71 men and 81 women) from 32 households living around the fiberglass factory which produced the fiberglass insulators and glasswool panels for 20 years. Questionnaire survey on household and persons, examination of underground water, pathologic examination of subcutaneous tumors and examination of fiberglass in tumor tissues were done. The results are as follows; 1. Fiberglass concentration of underground water sampled from 33 households in the study area was 13. 7-95. 9 fiber/cc with the diameter to length ratio more than 1:20. 2. Prevalence of dermatosis among study subjects was 23.0 % (35 cases). Prevalence was not associated with the distance from the factory nor duration of exposure. 3. There were 15 cases of subcutaneous tumor with prevalence of 9. 9 %. Age of subcutaneous tumor cases was all above 30 year-old except one cases, who was 5 year old child, who lived in the surveyed area since he was born. Prevalence of subcutaneous tumor was significantly high in area A(42.9 %) than area B(4.6 %, p<0.01). Prevalence of subcutaneous tumor was higher in long-term exposed inhabitants, but was not statistically significant. 4. Pathologic examination exhibits partly encapsulated fat tissue masses and cut surfaces were pale yellow with gritty sensation. The masses consist of mature fat cells showing variation in size and shape. On polarizing microscope, the peripheries of tumors include small irregular threads of doubly refractile material probably represent glass fibers in fibrocollagenous tissue. Concentration of fiberglass in tissue was 5.1-10.2 fiber/rag wet tissue in case 1, 25.8-184.9 fiber/mg wet tissue in case 2 and 40.8-126.5 fiber/mg wet tissue in case 3. Length of fiberglass was shorter than that in underground water. 5. Cases of malignant tumor among inhabitants since last 10 years were 4, 3 of whom was developed in a same household just near the factory. Diagnoses of malignancy cases were stomach cancer, stomach and esophageal cancer, oral cavity cancer, and stomach cancer with liver metastasis. On review examination of tissues of endoscopic biopsy specimen from a case of stomach cancer, there was adenocarcinoma with no evidence of fiberglass materials. Authors concluded there is evidences that fiberglass was strongly associated with the development of the health hazards including dermatosis and benign subcutaneous tumor. However, the association of fiberglass exposure with the development of malignant tumor was not clear, although strongly suggested. For the prevention of development of further health hazards, it is recommended that under ground water source should be closed and further experimental study to confirm the mechanism of the tumorigenesis and follow up survey on the inhabitants should be conducted.

Prevalence of Asbestosis in Korean Asbestos Industry / 대한산업의학회지

Asbestos industry has been in operation over 60 years in Korea. However, the prevalence of asbestosis has not been yet reported. With rapid turn-over of workers, previous cross-sectional studies of current workers on the job could not find cases with exposures long enough for the development of asbestosis. This study was done to evaluate asbestosis prevalence of those worksites with operation history of more than 20 years. In total, 139 workers from 5 worksites were examined. Asbestos industries covered in the study include 2 asbestos textile, 1 brake lining, and 2 ship repairing worksites. Chest x-ray was taken from all workers and read by two exports familiar with pneumoconiosis classification according to 1980 ILO guidelines. Those with findings compatible with asbestosis were further checked with high resolution computerized tomography (HRCT). Pulmonary function tests were done according to ATS guidelines, and occupational and previous medical history was taken through a standardized interview. Air-borne asbestos was measured according to NI0SH method 7400. The air-borno asbestos concentrations ranged from 0.2-1.3 f/cc for asbestos textile, from 0.7~l.0 f/cc for brake lining, and from 6.3-7.8 f/cc during asbestos removal at ship repairing worksite. Of the 139 workers 25 had abnormal chest radiographic findings, and 10 of them had findings compatible with pneumoconiosis. When work history and current asbestos measurements were accounted, 9 workers who had more than 10 years of asbestos exposure history showed chest radiographic findings of pneumoconiosis with Finally, 4 workers showed finding of pulmonary fibrosis and/or pleural thickening at HRCT, and 2 of them had restrictive lung function changes. The study results showed that, among 139 sutjects, there were 4 (3%) definite asbeatosis cases confirmed with HRCT. The prevalence of probable asbestosis was 7% for 10-14 years of exposure, 13% for 15-19 years of exposure, and 23% for 20 or more years of exposure. The prevalence of compensable asbestosis with abnormal lung function was 4-6% for those with 15 or more years of exposure.

A Case Report on Glass Fiber-induced Health Hazard due to Car interior Material / 대한산업의학회지

Glass Fiber is manufactured from typical glass-making raw materials, silicon dioxide with various metals and other elements. There are three distinct types of commercial glass fiber products: glass wool, an entangled mass of interlocking fibers; continuous glass filament, a product with a more ordered arrangement of fibers; and special-purpose glass fiber, a small-diameter fiber (less than 3 um) . We report a case of glass fiber-induced health hazard due to continuous glass filament from fiber reinforced plastics (FRF) as car interior material. A 40 years old man complained a sudden onset of severe itching on whole body, especially neck and forearms while driving a new car. He also complained burning of eyes, sore throat and productive cough. We diagnosed the glass fiver-induced skin lesion by placing skin scraping on a slide glass and examining the specimen under a microscope. We found same fibers from the air samples in the car and from the material of the interior surface of the car by the microscopic examination. Therefore we confirmed that the patient's symptoms and signs were induced by glass fiber.

A Study on the Manganese Exposure and Health Hazards Among Manganese Manufacturing Workers / 대한산업의학회지

To estimate the manganese (Mn, below) exposure of workers in the ferromanganese manufacture factory and to evaluate its health effects, airborne, blood and urine Mn concentration measurements, questionnaire and other neurologic examinations were performed on 80 Mn-handing productive male workers (exposed group), 47 non-Mn-handling productive male workers (internal control group) and 144 productive male workers in other factory (external control group). The results obtained were as follows; The highest airborne Mn fume concentration among the work process was found at charging (0.42 mg/m3), and ferromanganese crushing process (1.14 mg/m3) was the highest in Mn dust. However all of them were below threshold limit value. Mean Mn concentrations in blood and urine of crushing workers were higher than those of other part workers. Among all of them, workers whose urine Mn concentration were exceed normal reference level (10 microgram/l) were 31 (18.5%). There was statistically significant correlation between airborne and urine Mn concentration (r=0.60), and so between airborne and blood Mn concentration (r=0.49), while there was no statistically significant correlation between blood and urine Mn concentration. Mean Mn concentration in airborne (0.60 mg/m3), urine (6.92 microgram/l) and blood (3.16 microgram/dl) in exposed group were significantly higher than those of control groups (p<0.01). Clinical symptoms such as excessive sweating, hypoesthesia, libido change, anosmia, decreased visual acuity and difficulty in writing showed higher positive rate in exposed group. Positive rate of clinical signs such as eye blinking and masked face in exposed group was higher than external control group. However clinical and laboratory findings such as blood pressure, blood chemistry, grip strength in exposed group were not statistically different from those of control groups. The results suggested that further studies were followed to evaluate the workers whose blood Mn concentration were below normal reference level but urine Mn concentrations above normal reference level, and to establish the questionnaire and the diagnostic tools to detect the Mn poisoning workers early.

Development of Technology for Environmental Assessment and Biological Monitoring of Workers Exposed to Benzene / 대한산업의학회지

The objective of this study were to evaluate a correlation between airborne benzene concentrations and urinary muconic acid and to evaluate that between airborne benzene concentrations and urinary phenol concentrations. The high performance chromatographic method was used to measure the muconic acid concentrations in urine samples collected from 69 workers exposed to benzene and 155 non-exposed workers. The time weighted average benzene concentrations in breathing zone of workers were also determined. The physical examination and blood counts (hemoglobin, hematocrit, red blood cell, and white blood cell) were made for both workers exposed to benzene and control group. The results are as follows; 1. The geometric mean of airborne benzene concentrations for all workers was 2.0ppm (0.1-56.9ppm). The mean airborne benzene concentration of workers in adhesive tape manufacturing industry was 12.2ppm (8.3-56.9ppm), which was the highest by type of industry. 2. The geometric mean concentration of muconic acid in urine from male workers exposed to benzene was 3.9 mg/l (0.8-40.8 mg/l), which was significantly higher than that of non-exposed workers. The highest muconic acid concentration was indicated in the workers at the adhesive tape manufacturing industry. 3. There was a significant difference between the mean concentration of muconic acid of workers exposed to airborne benzene concentration of 5-10 pm and that of workers exposed to concentrations below 5 ppm. The urinary muconic acid concentration were correlated with airborne benzene concentration for workers (r=0.85). However there was no significant correlation between urinary phenol concentrations and airborne benzene concentrations. 4. The correlation coefficients between the urinary muconic acid concentration and airborne benzene concentration, urinary phenol concentration, exposure dose(airborne benzene concentration x work duration) and white blood cell were 0.85, 0.74, 0.63 and -0.33, respectively.

A Study on Urinary Hippuric Acid and Subjective Symptoms in Toluene Exposed Workers / 대한산업의학회지

To study the relationship between the urinary hippuric acid and subjective symptoms in toluene exposed workers, urinary hippuric acid was measured and subjective symptoms questionnarire was surveyed in 93 toluene exposed male workers and 96 non-exposed office male workers. The results are as follows: 1. Mean concentration of urinary hippuric acid, which is significantly higher in exposed group than in non-exposed group, was 1.3 g/l, 1.2(GM, GSD respectively) in exposed group and 0.6 g/l, 1.2(GM, GSD respectively) in non-exposed group. 2. Mean concentration of toluene in the air in the workplace, which is significantly higher in the department of coater than in the department of mixing, was 23.4 ppm, 6.2(GM, GSD respectively) in the department of mixing and 59.8 ppm, 3.4(GM, GSD respectively) in the department of coater. 3. Complained rates of subjective symptoms were significantly higher in exposed group than in non exposed group in all items. 4. In exposed group, complained rate of CNS related symptoms was higher than that of irritation related symptoms in the first part but there was no significant difference and complained rate of irritation related symptoms in the second part was significantly higher than that of CNS related symptoms. 5. In exposed group, complained rates of subjective symptoms were not compatible with dose-response relationship by the concentration of urinary hippuric acid, duration of work, department of work, and age group retrospectively.

Determination of Lead in Urine by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry / 예방의학회지

No abstract available.