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Exposure to mineral oil mist and respiratory symptoms in marine engineers
Author(s) -
Svendsen Kristin,
Hilt Bjørn
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199707)32:1<84::aid-ajim10>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - medicine , mist , bronchitis , environmental health , logistic regression , chronic bronchitis , respiratory system , occupational medicine , occupational exposure , toxicology , biology , physics , meteorology
The purpose of the study was to see if marine engineers have an increased prevalence of respiratory symptoms, and if so whether it can be related to occupational exposures. A self‐administered questionnaire was sent to 700 male seamen from three Norwegian ferry companies. Of the 492 respondents, 169 were currently working as marine engineers and 295 had never worked as marine engineers. The outcomes of cough and wheezing, chronic bronchitis, severe dyspnea, any dyspnea, and mucous membrane irritation (MMI) were defined from the questionnaire. Age and smoking‐adjusted prevalences of these respiratory conditions were compared between the groups. Logistic regression was used to further elucidate the explanatory variables. The exposure assessment indicated an exposure (TWAC) to oil mist for marine engineers in the range from 0.12 to 0.74 mg/m 3 (mean 0.45 mg/m 3 ). When comparing current marine engineers with those who had never worked as marine engineers, the prevalence ratios were 1.38 (95% CI 1.0–1.9) for MMI, 1.53 (95% CI 1.2–1.9) for any dyspnea, and 1.63 (95% CI 1.0–2.6) for severe dyspnea. The differences remained for some of the symptoms after controlling for self‐reported former asbestos exposure in the regression analysis. The increased prevalence of respiratory symptoms found among marine engineers in this investigation may partly be explained by oil‐mist exposure, or more probably by a combination of past asbestos exposure and past and present oil‐mist exposure. Am. J. Ind. Med. 32:84‐89, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.