Hamzeh Mohammadi, Farideh Golbabaei, Somayeh Farhang Dehghan, Mohammad Normohammadi,
Volume 7, Issue 1 (4-2017)
Abstract
Introduction: Exposure to crystalline silica dust can seriously threaten health of workers engaged in processes such as casting, stone crushing, grinding, construction activities, insulator manufacturing, and glassblowing and sandblasting. The aim of this study was to assess occupational exposure to crystalline silica and to determine the risk of mortality from silicosis and lung cancer in an insulator manufacturer.
Material and Method: Air personal sampling was performed using 10 mm nylon cyclone and mixed cellulose ester (MCE) membrane filters (5 mm diameter, 0.8 μm pore size) for 60 male workers. Samples were prepared and analyzed according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 7601 standard method. The risk assessment of mortality due to silicosis resulting from crystalline silica exposure was done by using model of Mannetje et al. for the period of 10 years. The mortality rate of lung cancer was determined using a linear regression model derived from the study Rice et al.
Result: The highest and lowest exposure levels to silica were belonged to the packing unit (0.54±0.28 mg/m3) and the furnace (0.02±0.01 mg/m3), respectively. Crystalline silica concentrations for all samples were higher than Threshold Limit Values (0.025 mg/m3) recommended by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH). According to Mannetje et al. model, the cumulative exposure of 25% workers was in the range 0 to 0.99 that it represents 1 death per 1,000 people. The risk of mortality due to lung cancer was obtained in the range of 7-94 persons per 1000 workers exposed to silica.
Conclusion: In general, the geometric and arithmetic mean of crystalline silica exposure was higher than threshold limit value for most of the subjects. For all workers of the insulator manufacturer, the risk of silicosis related mortality was higher than 1/1,000 (unacceptable level of risk). Predicting the lung cancer mortality from silica exposure indicated a high level of mortality risk among understudied workers.
Saba Kalantary, Farideh Golbabaei, Saeid Yazdanirad, Somayeh Farhang Dehghan,
Volume 9, Issue 1 (4-2019)
Abstract
Introduction: Nowadays, millions of people are exposed to the dusts in their workplaces. Occupational exposure to dusts is considered as one of the most common and serious occupational hazards to workers’ health. The purpose of this literature review was to review the literature related to the occupational exposure to dusts in Iran published over the past 14 years.
Material and Methods: In this review, published articles were obtained from Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Islamic World Sciences Citation (ISC), Magiran, SID، Iran Medex, and Civilica search engine. The main keywords for search were Occupational Exposure, Lung, Dust, Total Dust, and Respirable Dust. The relevant articles published in Iran over the past 14 years were searched and extracted after checking their relevancy. All articles were classified based on the titles, years of publication, places of publication, type of industries, geographic distributions, sampling and analysis methods, fields of study, and the amounts of exposure.
Results: Findings showed that in spite of increases in the rate of published literature in recent years and by considering geographical variation and the large number of dust generating firms and industries, a relatively small number of studies was conducted and published in this field. Majority of the studies in this field considered the levels of dust exposure and respiratory effects of dust exposures. In most studies the levels of occupational exposure to dusts (and crystalline silica dusts) were higher than the recommended limit values.
Conclusion: Although an increasing number of studies can be seen in recent years on occupational exposure to dusts and their effect, by considering the presence of large and small size industries with dust generating pollution in Iran, the large number of exposed people, adverse-health effects, and the need for control measures, few studies have been published in this field and further works need to be done in this area.
Parisa Farahmandian, Abdollah Mohammadian-Hafshejani, Abdolmajid Fadaei, Ramezan Sadeghi,
Volume 14, Issue 1 (3-2024)
Abstract
Introduction: Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in the world. Smoking occupational and environmental exposures are the most important causes of lung cancer. Cadmium is known as a human carcinogen due to its ability to increase lung cancer risk. This study estimates the general results of all studies on the relationship between cadmium and lung cancer.
Material and Methods: In the present study, studies that evaluated the relationship between cadmium and lung cancer until May 2022 were searched and retrieved. From the funnel plot to determine the existence of diffusion skew, from the statistical tests Chi-squared test (x2) and I2 to determine heterogeneity, from the meta-regression method to identify the root of heterogeneity, and from the sensitivity analysis approach to identify the effect of each study on the result, it was generally used. This study performed all analyses with Stata statistical software version 15.
Results: In this study, it was observed that the chance of developing lung cancer compared to the base group, in the people exposed to a higher dose than the base level of cadmium is equal to 1.31 (95% CI: 1.06-1.62; p-value = 0.024), which is statistically significant. Based on Egger’s test (p-value = 0.178) and Begg’s (p-value = 0.276), no diffusion bias was observed in this study.
Conclusion: ccording to the final results of this review research, exposure to cadmium leads to a 31% increase in lung cancer risk, which is statistically significant. Therefore, cadmium is a risk factor for lung cancer.
