Abstract
Objective: To investigate associations between wood dust exp. and resp. symptoms in two studies 5 years apart from the same area.
Methods: 2,032 woodworkers from 54 plants in study 1 and 1,889 woodworkers from 52 plants in study 2 returned a questionnaire on resp. symptoms, employment and smoking habits. Assessment of wood dust exp. was based on job exposure matrices including factory size, task and personal dust measurements (2,217 in study 1 and 1,355 in study 2).
Results: The median (range) of inhalable dust conc. was 0.8 (0.4-1.6)mg/m3 in study 1 and 0.6 (0.3-1.1)mg/m3 in study 2. The prev. of selfrep. asthma was higher, but the prev. of resp. symptoms were lower in study 2 vs. study 1.
In adj. logistic regression analyses wood dust exposure explained the difference in symptom prevalence between study 1 and study 2, but no effect was found for selfrep. asthma. No influence of sex, smoking and age was seen.
Conclusion: An association between respiratory symptoms and wood dust exposure was confirmed.
- © 2012 ERS