Dust and obstructive bronchitis among flax scutchers
Pasquis, P.; Hellot, M.F.; Nouvet, G.; Denis, P.; Morère, P.; Lefrançois, R.
Bulletin Europeen de Physiopathologie Respiratoire 17(5): 837-846
1981
ISSN/ISBN: 0395-3890 PMID: 7296083 Document Number: 172370
Out of 107 workers from the flax scutching industry, 57 displayed evidence of clinical and/or spirometric signs of bronchitis. To explain this high frequency, a statistical analysis was done for correlating clinical and functional symptoms with risk factors such as age, duration of service, smoking, alcoholism and amount of dust. Bronchitis was more frequent with smokers than nonsmokers. As for scutchers who did not smoke or smoked little, bronchitis was more frequent with those who worked in very dusty conditions. Spirometric perturbations and ORL symptomatology were more often observed with the subjects who worked in the largest amount of dust. A multifactorial statistical correspondance analysis taking into account all the factors involved set apart 2 groups of subjects : young and non smoking subjects who worked in moderate amounts of dust and were free of disorders of any kind; the subjects who presented airways perturbations were the oldest workers, they worked in the largest amounts of dust but they smoked.