Abstract:Objective To investigate the pulmonary function of workers in cemented carbide production enterprises in Zhuzhou City, to explore the effect of cemented carbide dust on lung function of the workers, and to preliminarily discuss the setting of occupational health check items for in-service workers in cemented carbide production enterprises. Methods Four hundred and twenty-six in-service workers selected from two cemented carbide production enterprises in Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province in 2016 served as the research subjects. All the workers’ general information and history of occupation were collected through a questionnaire survey, and then their lung function was examined. All the workers were divided into the exposure group and the control group according to exposure and non-exposure to dust. The exposure group was subgrouped into the before sintering group and the sintering and after sintering group according to the properties of exposed-dust. We surveyed the current status of lung function of workers in each type of work in the two cemented carbide production enterprises in Zhuzhou City. Results Lung function test Results of the exposure group and the control group were within the normal range. After smoking, age and length of service and other mixed factors were controlled, pulmonary ventilation function indexes, VC/estimated value, FVC/estimated value and FEV1/expected value in the exposure group were significantly decreased compared with the control group(t=-5.69,P<0.001;t=-6.54,P<0.001;t=-6.24,P<0.001), while FEV1/FVC values(t=8.068,P<0.001) and MEF25%/estimated value(t=2.79,P=0.005) were significantly increased. No statistically significant difference was found in MEF50%/estimated value and MMEF/estimated value between the exposure group and the control group (t=-0.98,P=0.327;t=0.815,P=0.416). Compared with the workers engaging in jobs before sintering, pulmonary small airway function indexes, MEF25%/predicted value, MEF50%/expected value and MMEF/predicted value in the workers engaging in sintering and jobs after sintering were significantly increased(t=-2.177, P=0.030; t=-2.038, P=0.042; t=-2.321, P=0.021). Conclusions Tungsten cobalt dust and cemented carbide dust in the carbide production enterprises can lead to changes in the indicators of lung ventilation function. Pulmonary small airway function indicators may be sensitive indexes of early lung injury induced by cemented carbide, and pulmonary small airway function should serve as the necessary inspection items in the occupational health examination during the service.
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