The Annals of occupational hygiene
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Multicenter Study
Occupational and environmental factors and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in Japan.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive fibrosing interstitial lung disease of unknown etiology. Environmental factors, especially occupational agents, may be of great importance in the manifestation of IPF. We examined the relationship between occupational and environmental factors and IPF in Japan. ⋯ From 20.0 to 39.9 pack-years of smoking was significantly associated with an increased risk of IPF (OR = 3.23; 95% CI = 1.01-10.84). Our results appear to confirm data from previous epidemiologic studies. Metal dust exposure may be a particularly important risk factor for IPF.
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This paper describes a study that was carried out at work sites in the primary nickel production industry to investigate the difference between inhalable and 'total' aerosol exposures by using the mannequin sampling method, and to compare the results with those from an earlier study where actual workers' personal exposures were assessed in the same way. Experiments were carried out at 21 work sites located in mining, milling, smelting, and refining works of two primary nickel production companies. During sampling, mannequins were used to simulate the physical presence of workers and the 'exposures' of these were obtained for strategic positions at selected work sites. ⋯ The consistency of the (inhalable/'total') ratios between mannequin and actual personal sampling strongly suggests that the characteristics of the aerosol sampled by the two methods, most notably the particle size distribution, were the same. This in turn suggests that mannequin sampling can be useful in occupational hygiene for determining such properties of personal workers' exposures. It certainly provides a useful and cost effective method for determining factors at work sites in individual industry settings by which to examine the impact of changing exposure assessment from one based on 'total' aerosol to the recommended new approach based on inhalable aerosol.