This study was performed to find out the exposure level of mixed organic solvents, excretion of urinary hippuricacid and subjective symptoms according to the exposure of organic solvents of female workers who works on 5 shoes manufacturing industries in Taeon City from 24, September to 20, October 1993. The studied groups were divided into 3 groups that were consist of direct exposure group(48 workers), indirect exposure group(49 workers) and non-exposure group(68 workers) to the organic solvents.
The exposure levels of toluene of direct exposure group which 89.86±56.20ppm had higher than that of indirect exposure group which had 40.23±47.21ppm. In the exposure level of mixed organic solvent(R-value), direct exposure group was 2.84±1.53 and exceeded approximatly 3 times the R-value. Whereas, indirect exposure group was not exceeded the R-value as 0.80±0.61. In the excretion level of urinary hippuric acid, direct exposure group was 1.78±1.25g/ℓ, indirect exposure group was 1.22±0.93g/ℓ and non-exposure group was 0.51±0.18g/ℓ respectively. Therefore both direct exposure group and indirect exposure group were significantly higher than non-exposure group(P$lt;0.01).
In the correlation between toluene levels and urinary hippuric acid level, the direct exposure group had positive correlation(R=0.8309, P$lt;0.01), also indirect exposure group had positive correlation(R=0.5859, P$lt;0.05) and also in the correlation between the R value of mixed organic solvents and the urinary hippuric acid levels, the direct exposure group had positive correlation(R=0.4492, P$lt;0.05), and indirect exposure group had positive correlation(R=0.7911, P$lt;0.01). In the complain rates of the worker´s subjective symptoms at work, both direct exposure group and indirect exposure group were higher than non-exposure group(P$lt;0.05, P$lt;0.01). But the subjective symptoms of $quot;floating sensation$quot; of direct exposure group had significantly higher than indirect exposure group. In the percent of subjective symptoms complaints during the worker´s daily life, both direct exposure group and indirect exposure group had generally more statistical significance than nonexposure group(P$lt;0.01), direct exposure group had not statistical significant difference from indirect exposure group.
As the results mentioned above, it has bin analysed that the indirect at the adjacent manufacturing process are exposed to the considerable amount of solvent. Therefore, I think that there should be the betterment of surrounding through the complete working environment management to the occurrence source of the organic solvent, the changes of health management system to the indirect-exposed workers, and the systematic management of the special medical examination and the like.
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