OCULAR AND NASAL IRRITATION IN OPERATIVES IN LANCASHIRE COTTON AND SYNTHETIC-FIBER MILLS

Objectives-To document the prevalence of work related ocular (eyeWRI) and nasal (noseWRI) irritation in workers in spinning mills of cotton and synthetic textile fibres and to relate the prevalence of symptoms to atopy, byssinotic symptoms, work history,and measured dust concentr ations in the personal breathing zone and work area. Methods-A cross s ectional study of 1048 cotton workers and 404 synthetic fibre workers was performed. A respiratory questionnaire was given to 1452 workers ( 95% of the total available population). Atopy was judged by skin prick tests to three common allergens. Work area cotton dust sampling (WAdu st) was carried out according to EH25 guidelines in nine of the 11 spi nning mills included in the study. Personal breathing zone dust concen trations were assessed with the IOM sampler to derive total dust expos ure (PTdust) and a concentration calculated after the removal of fly ( Pless). Results-3.7% of all operatives complained of symptoms of byssi nosis, 253 (17.5%) complained of eyeWRI and 165 (11%) of noseWRI. Thes e symptoms did not relate to atopy or byssinosis, or correlate univari ately with any measure of cotton dust exposure (noseWRI v WAdust r = 0 .153, PTdust r = 0.118, eyeWRI v WAdust r = 0.029, PTdust r 0.052). Bo th of these symptoms on logistic regression analysis were related to b eing of white origin (P < 0.001), female sex (P < 0.001), and younger age (P < 0.001). With regression analysis, there was a negative relati on between dust concentration and prevalence of symptoms. Conclusion W ork related ocular and nasal irritation are the most common symptoms c omplained of by cotton textile workers. There was no relation between these symptoms and atopy, byssinosis, or dust concentration. It is lik ely that they relate to as yet unidentified agents unrelated to concen tration of cotton dust.