Effects of combined exposure to hand-transmitted vibration and noise on male workers' electrocardiogram and blood pressure

Objective To understand the adverse effects of combined exposure of noise and hand vibration on male workers'electrocardiogram(ECG)and blood pressure.

Methods The male workers in an automobile manufacturing company were studied and they were divided into 4 groups according to their exposure characteristics, namely, 200 workers in noise exposure group, 201 workers in manual vibration exposure group, 199 workers in the combined exposure group (noise and hand-transmitted vibration), and 194 male factory administrative staff in the control group. The basic information, ECG and blood pressure measurement results of these subjects were collected, and the effects of hand-transmitted vibration and noise exposure on ECG and blood pressure of these workers were analyzed.

Results There was no significant difference of age, smoking habit, drinking habit and body mass index among these workers in four groups (P > 0.05). Compared with the control group, the abnormal rates of ECG and blood pressure in noise exposure group, hand-transmitted vibration exposure group and combined exposure group were higher(P < 0.05), and the logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of abnormal ECG of these groups was 2.542, 2.426 and 3.405, and the risk of abnormal blood pressure was 1.786, 2.962 and 4.971, respectively(P < 0.05).

Conclusions Hand transmitted vibration and noise exposure have significant adverse effects on blood pressure and electrocardiogram, and the combined exposure to these two factors has synergistic adverse effect on ECG and abnormal blood pressure.