Incidence of Asthma Among Aluminum Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cantley LF ; Fiellin MG ; Rabinowitz PM ; Sircar KD ; Slade MD ; Taiwo OA ; Vegso SJ
• Description:
  Exposures to respiratory irritants encountered in aluminum smelters in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand have been suggested as the cause of "potroom asthma." However, there remains disagreement in North America regarding the existence of this entity. This study was designed to assess whether asthma occurs excessively among potroom workers and if so, delineate dose-response relationships for possible causal risk factors. The asthma incidence ratio between potroom and nonpotroom workers after adjusting for smoking was 1.40. Although bivariate analyses showed a relationship between asthma incidence and exposure to total fluoride, gaseous fluoride, particulate fluoride, sulfur dioxide, and smoking, only the effects of gaseous fluoride (relative risk [RR] = 5.1) and smoking (RR = 7.7) remained significant in a multivariate model. Potroom asthma appears to occur at the studied U.S. aluminum smelters at doses within regulatory guidelines. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aluminum Compounds Asthma Asthma, Occupational Irritants Metal Workers Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Respiratory Tract Diseases Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety

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• Keywords:
  Aluminum-compounds Aluminum-industry Bronchial-asthma Dose-response Models Occupational-exposure Respiratory-irritants Respiratory-system-disorders Risk-factors Surveillance Worker-health Workers

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• ISSN:
  1076-2752
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Connecticut ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  275-282
• Volume:
  48
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20029872
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Med 2006 Mar; 48(3):275-282
• Email:
  Oyebode.taiwo@yale.edu
• CAS Registry Number:
  Aluminum (CAS RN 7429-90-5)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9207d994119f0b6d161d04d377ea33a191f4e399b216777c48955f19ed284145b39d837d3725ccd652f5cc78a0fcff992ba308dab1769eee1980e3cc28516692
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/190768/cdc_190768_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 339.86 KB ]