the effect of cement dust on the lung function in a cement factory, iran

the present study aimed at assessing cement dust exposure and its relationship to lung function at a portland cement factory in ilam, iran. lung function tests were carried out on 112 workers at the cement factory in 2008-09. simultaneously 85 non exposed workers were used as control. lung function tests were performed for all subjects. additionally, total dust level was determined by the gravimetric method. moreover, x-ray diffraction (xrd) technique was performed to determine the sio 2 contents of the bulk samples. the arithmetic means (am) of personal total dust were higher in the crusher (27.49 mg/m 3 ), packing (16.90 mg/m 3 ), kiln (15.60 mg/m 3 ), cement mill (13.07 mg/m 3 ), raw mill (10.31 mg /m 3 ) than in the maintenance (3.14 mg /m3), and administration (1.55 mg/m 3 ). the geometrical mean (gm) concentration was 12.12 mg/m 3 , which were considerably higher than occupational exposure limit (oel) of the american conference of governmental industrial hygienists (acgih), which is 10 mg/m 3 . based on the results, the probability of the long-term mean exposure exceeding to the oel of 10 mg/m 3 for total dust were higher in the kiln (100%), packing (100%), cement mill (90%), crusher (73%), raw mill (60%) than in the maintenance (0%), and administration (2.3%). ventiliatory function evaluation, as measured by the function parameters, showed that 35.7% of the exposed workers had abnormality in lung function compared with 5.7% of those unexposed. statistical analysis of the data indicated that exposed workers compared to the unexposed groups showed significant reductions in forced expiratory volume in one second percent (fev 1 ), forced vital capacity (fvc), and fev 1 /fvc ( p < 0.05).