Some biochemical changes in guinea--pigs chronically exposed to flax dust.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M H Noweir.
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Noise was evaluated in six spinning and five weaving halls located in three textile mills in Egypt. Spindle speed (rpm) and loom speed (picks per minutes) were found to be important parameters affecting the noise level in these mills. Reduction of the number of spinning machines to five spindles per square meter of floor area will probably bring the noise level below the TLV. In the weaving departments, the decrease in the number of looms will not effectively reduce the noise level.
Previous evidence suggested that interruption of worker's exposure to flax dust may lead to severe symptoms of byssinosis on their return to work. In the present study, the prevalence and severity of byssinosis was studied in a sample of flax workers (n=577) who had been exposed to dust for six months each year. Byssinosis prevailed in 36.9% of them, and 32.3% of them had their FEV 1.0 sec reduced 10% at the end of the first morning work period (4 to 6 hours) of the week. Both syndromes were higher among seasonal workers than what would be predicted if they were pemanently exposed to flax dust. A hypothesis has been presented to interpret this finding.
Manual flax processing originated in Egypt in 2 000 BC. In the present study a representative sample of the workers involved in this trade, where flax is processed in small workshops or homes, was examined, and their dust exposure was evaluated. The study showed that workers handling and processing flax are exposed to high concentrations of dust; the levels of dust at hackling and combing are considerably higher than at batting and spinning. Byssinosis prevailed in 22-9% of the examined workers, and 18-4% of them had their forced expiratory volume in one second reduced by more than 10% at the end of the first morning work period (4 hours) of the week. Both the rates and the grades of these syndromes increased with duration of exposure. Smoking appeared to be one of the important contributory factors in the production of byssinosis. The relationship between dust concentration and prevalence of byssinosis seems to be curvilinear.
Epidemiological investigation of 475 workers exposed to dust in flax processing has shown that family susceptibility has a decisive role in the development of byssinosis in those workers. Workers whose fathers had occupational history of exposure to flax dust were more resistant to the development of the disease than those whose fathers had no such history. Such tolerance was much higher in workers whose fathers were byssinotic than those with byssinosis-free fathers. Further hereditary and immunological investigations are, however, needed.
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