Study of pulmonary ventilatory and audiometric changes among workers in wood processing industry

ABSTRACT

The study included 133 wood workers who were randomly selected from 4 carpentries in the district of small scale industries [Alaasher city, Sharkia Governorate] east to Cairo city. Another 65 subjects were randomly selected from the street cleaners of comparable age and socio-economic standard as a control group. Both groups were subjected to history taking according to a questionnaire form, clinical examination of the chest and assessment of pulmonary ventilatory functions. Audiometric evaluation was performed for 36 wood workers and 22 subjects of the control group. Dust sampling and weighted sound pressure levels were determined at head levels of workers in the studied locations. It has been found that workers exposed to wood dust had a higher prevalence of chest symptoms and signs with pulmonary ventilatory measurements lower than those of the controls. The longer the duration of exposure to wood dust, the more the deterioration of pulmonary ventilatory functions. Regarding audiometric changes, there were statistically significant differences between mean hearing thresholds for both ears at all test frequencies of workers exposed to noise and the controls with characteristic dipping at the region of 4000 Hz. The study recommended the importance of ventilatory and audiometric screening as important tools in detecting the hazardous exposure to wood industrial processing before developing health hazards