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A study on the health status of the inhabitants exposed to cementdust.
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Hae Kwan Cheong, Joung Soon Kim, Byung Soon Choi, Chung Bum Kim, Sung Il Cho, Yun Mi Song, Hyun Sul Lim
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Korean J Epidemiol. 1992;14(1):59-69.
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 Abstract
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Abstract
A health impact of environmental cement dust exposure among inhabitants around a cement factory was carried out with special emphasis on finding bronchial asthma cases in this area. Questionnaire survey and physical examination were done on 437 persons in two villages located within 1km distance from the cement factory. On the basis of questionnaire survey and physical examination, 56 persons with suspicion of bronchial asthma were screened, who were further examined to establish diagnosis by physical examination, pulmonary function test and bronchodilator test.
Results are as follows :
1. Inhabitants in surveyed area had high prevalence of acute and chronic diseases, particularly respiratory diseases and dermatologic diseases.
2. Respiratory symptoms complained were sputum(23.9%), cough(23.0%), dyspnea(19.1%), chest tightness(14.6%), and wheezy breath sound(13.1%). On physical examination, pterygium(29.5%), decreased breath sound(3.0%), wheezing(3.3%), and rales(2.7%) were found.
3. On diagnostic examination, 32 cases (prevalence rate 7.3%) of bronchial asthma and 10 current cases (prevalence rate 2.3%) of bronchial asthma were confirmed.
Thus it is postulated that high prevalence of bronchial asthma and respiratory diseases in this area may be related to environmental exposure to the cement dust. Further study, however, such as bronchial provocation test may be necessary to establish definite conclusion on causal relationship between bronchial asthma and environmental cement dust exposure.
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Summary
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A study on the effect of noise exposure to the health of a population
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Sung Il Cho, Joung Soon Kim, Hyun Sul Lim, Hae Kwan Cheong, Byung Soon Choi
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Korean J Epidemiol. 1990;12(2):153-164.
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Abstract
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Abstract
For the purpose of evaluating the effect of noise exposure to the health of a population in a village near an air force shooting practice site, a cross-sectional study was conducted from April 1 to April 23 in 1989, on the inhabitants of the village as exposed group and on the population of another provincial village as nonexposed group, which was similar to the exposed in socioeconomic status but had not been exposed to the environmental noise. Subjective symptoms, pulse rate, blood pressure, and pure tone thresholds were compared in the exposed group and the nonexposed group.
150 and 93 subjectes studied were analyzed in each group. The results were as follows :
1) There was a significant difference between the two groups in the frequency of subjective symptoms including otalgia, hearing loss, tinnitus, ear fullness, nausea, diarrhea, indigestion, and anxiety.
2) There was no significant difference between the two groups in average pulse rate, while significant differences were seen in average systolic and diastolic arterial blood pressures, which were 138± 23.2mmHg and 84.5±14.4mmHg in the exposed group and 126.8±19.3mmHg and 73.8±11.3mmHg in the nonexposed group. The prevalence of hypertension by WHO criteria was 24.0% in the exposed group and 8.6% in the nonexposed group, of which difference was statistically significant.
3) There was no significant difference between the two groups in average hearing loss value, while the prevalence of hearing impairment in the exposed and the nonexposed group was 24.0% and 13.4% each according to the criteria of 500, 1000, 2000Hzx pure tone average greater than 26dB, showing a significant difference between the two groups.
4) As the duration of residence increased the hearing loss value increased in the exposed group, but age-corrected percentage hearing loss did not show any increase ; further study may be necessary to determine whether the significantly high prevalence of hearing loss in the exposed group was due to the environmental noise exposure.
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