Evaluation of Nuisance Dust Health Effects on the Workers in a Tile Industry

Abstract

Background and objectivesAir pollution in the occupational fields and its economical effects on the health care system is studied from different viewpoints such as products quality, equipment damage, environment preservation, and air pollution control. Nowadays, a lot of attention has been turned toward health effects of air pollution. The objective of this study is detection of the total dust concentration and assessment of the health effect of nuisance dust among workers in a tile production factory.MethodsIn this study airborne dust concentration was measured and evaluated by using NIOSH 0500 method. In order to determine the health effects, a standard questionnaire was used. All of personnel of workshop 1 (n=50) and workshop 2 (n=50) were assigned to the case group and one hundreds of factory employees were assigned to the control group. Results analyzed using Z test.ResultsAccording to the obtained results, concentration of dust in workshop 1 corridor was higher than that of workshop 2 corridor (59.262 mg/m3 and 32.158 mg/m3 respectively). Also, these results showed that there are significant differences between two groups in incidence of symptoms such as dry cough, eye irritation, skin redness, shortness of breath, blurred vision, skin irritation, hoarseness of voice, dry mouth and throat, throat itching and skin itching (P<0.05). However, there were not significant differences in incidence of headache, chest pain, epiphora of eyes, mucus cough, sinus problems and chest wheezing between two groups.ConclusionOn the basis of these results it was revealed that nuisance dust can affect human health and performance. This in turn can increase the medical service load and costs. As a result of inadequate control systems established in the industries, lack of information and appropriate training, and lack of personal protective equipment all across the industries, we suggest a more comprehensive research project to evaluate the effects of industrial air pollution on the workers in order to improve quality of their lives and work.Keywords: Air Pollution; Dust; Nuisance; Health Effects; Tile Industr