Respiratory health of automobile workers exposed to metal-working fluid aerosols: Respiratory symptoms

• Published in: American journal of industrial medicine 1997-11, Vol.32 (5), p.450-459
• Main Authors: Greaves, Ian A., Eisen, Ellen A., Smith, Thomas J., Pothier, Lucille J., Kriebel, David, Woskie, Susan R., Kennedy, Susan M., Shalat, Stuart, Monson, Richard R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerosols; Air Pollutants, Occupational - adverse effects; asthma; Asthma - epidemiology; Automobiles; Biological and medical sciences; Bronchitis - epidemiology; Chemical and industrial products toxicology. Toxic occupational diseases; chronic bronchitis; Chronic Disease; exposure-response data; Humans; Logistic Models; machinists; Male; Medical sciences; metal-working fluids; Metallurgy; Michigan - epidemiology; Occupational Exposure - analysis; Odds Ratio; Oils - adverse effects; Prevalence; Respiration Disorders - epidemiology; respiratory symptoms; Toxicology; Various organic compounds
• ISSN: 0271-3586; 1097-0274
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0274(199711)32:5<450::AID-AJIM4>3.0.CO;2-W

A total of 1,811 automobile workers at three General Motors facilities were evaluated by questionnaire for possible respiratory effects resulting from airborne exposures to metal‐working fluids (MWF): 1,042 currently worked as machinists and were exposed to one of three types of MWF aerosols (straight mineral oils, soluble oil emulsions, or water‐based synthetic fluids that contained no oils); 769 assembly workers, without direct exposure, served as an internal reference group (of these, 239 had never worked as machinists). Symptoms of usual cough, usual phlegm, wheezing, chest tightness, and breathlessness, as well as physician‐diagnosed asthma, and chronic bronchitis were the primary outcomes examined. Machinists as a whole had higher prevalence of cough, phlegm, wheezing, and breathlessness than that of assembly workers. Adjusting for confounding, phlegm and wheeze were associated with increasing levels of current exposure to straight oils; cough, phlegm, wheeze, chest tightness, and chronic bronchitis were associated with increasing levels of current exposure to synthetics. In models that included both past and current exposure, only current exposures to straight and synthetic fluids were associated with current symptoms. Am. J. Ind. Med. 32:450–459, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.