Effect of wood dust exposure on workers' pulmonary function in wood furniture manufacturing enterprises

  Objective  To study the current condition situation of wood dust in wood furniture manufacturing enterprises and its effects on workers' pulmonary function in a city.

  Methods  Three wood furniture manufacturing enterprises registered on the occupational health supervising platform were studied. The airborne wood dust was collected and general information of all workers was collected while the pulmonary function was measured by SinBo pulmonary function meter.

  Results  Totally 56 workplaces with wood dust exposure were evaluated in this study, and the average concentration of wood dust was (1.76 ± 0.32)mg/m³； 21 workplaces (37.5%) were found that airborne wood dust concentration was higher than exposure limit. The wood dust concentrations at workplaces engaged in gong machine process, lathes machine process and materials cutting were higher than those in other workplaces(P < 0.05). A total of 411 workers exposed to wood dust were enrolled in this study, and 370 workers (90.02%) had normal pulmonary ventilation function and 41 workers (9.98%) had impaired pulmonary ventilation function. The logistic regression analysis showed that risk of pulmonary ventilation dysfunction increased by 3.52 and 3.42 times, compared with the lower exposure (< 1.76 mg/m³)and less working time (< 5 years), respectively (P < 0.05), while the age and smoking played important role.

  Conclusions  The concentration of wood dust in the wood furniture manufacturing enterprises in this city was high, which could affect the pulmonary ventilation function of workers. The reform of production process and the engineering control of wood dust should be strengthened, and the occupational health examination should be done to find earlier abnormality and to prevent further damage.