Korean J Occup Environ Med.  1994 Feb;6(1):98-112.

A Study on the Manganese Exposure and Health Hazards Among Manganese Manufacturing Workers

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Korea.
  • 2Department of Industrial Hygiene, School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Korea.

Abstract

To estimate the manganese (Mn, below) exposure of workers in the ferromanganese manufacture factory and to evaluate its health effects, airborne, blood and urine Mn concentration measurements, questionnaire and other neurologic examinations were performed on 80 Mn-handing productive male workers (exposed group), 47 non-Mn-handling productive male workers (internal control group) and 144 productive male workers in other factory (external control group). The results obtained were as follows; The highest airborne Mn fume concentration among the work process was found at charging (0.42 mg/m3), and ferromanganese crushing process (1.14 mg/m3) was the highest in Mn dust. However all of them were below threshold limit value. Mean Mn concentrations in blood and urine of crushing workers were higher than those of other part workers. Among all of them, workers whose urine Mn concentration were exceed normal reference level (10 microgram/l) were 31 (18.5%). There was statistically significant correlation between airborne and urine Mn concentration (r=0.60), and so between airborne and blood Mn concentration (r=0.49), while there was no statistically significant correlation between blood and urine Mn concentration. Mean Mn concentration in airborne (0.60 mg/m3), urine (6.92 microgram/l) and blood (3.16 microgram/dl) in exposed group were significantly higher than those of control groups (p<0.01). Clinical symptoms such as excessive sweating, hypoesthesia, libido change, anosmia, decreased visual acuity and difficulty in writing showed higher positive rate in exposed group. Positive rate of clinical signs such as eye blinking and masked face in exposed group was higher than external control group. However clinical and laboratory findings such as blood pressure, blood chemistry, grip strength in exposed group were not statistically different from those of control groups. The results suggested that further studies were followed to evaluate the workers whose blood Mn concentration were below normal reference level but urine Mn concentrations above normal reference level, and to establish the questionnaire and the diagnostic tools to detect the Mn poisoning workers early.

Keyword

Manganese; Ferromanganess Workers; Chronic Manganese Poisoning

MeSH Terms

Blinking
Blood Pressure
Chemistry
Dust
Hand Strength
Humans
Hypesthesia
Libido
Male
Manganese*
Masks
Neurologic Examination
Olfaction Disorders
Poisoning
Questionnaires
Sweat
Sweating
Visual Acuity
Writing
Dust
Manganese
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