Objective To explore the irritation effects of refractory ceramic fibers on workers' skin.
Methods This study enrolled 281 manufacturing and processing workers as the exposure group and 274 workers only exposed to noise as the control group.All subjects accepted skin examination and questionnaire interview.Irritant contact dermatitis and skin itching symptom were the concerned health effects.Low,medium,and high exposure levels were divided by the gravimetric concentration of total dust < 1 mg/m3(83 workers),1-5 mg/m3(128 workers),and > 5 mg/m3(70 workers) and by the number concentration of fiber < 0.1 f/mL (83 workers),0.1-0.5 f/mL (163 workers),and > 0.5 f/mL (35 workers).
Results The positive rate of irritant contact dermatitis in the exposure group was 13.2%,significantly higher than that of the control group (0%)(P < 0.05);the positive rate of skin itching symptom in the exposure group (36.0%) was significantly higher than that of the control group (10.6%)(P < 0.05).Both showed increasing linear trends with the gravimetric concentration of total dust (P < 0.05),but not associated with the number concentration of fiber or the exposure age (P > 0.05).
Conclusion Exposure to refractory ceramic fibers may induce irritant contact dermatitis and skin itching symptom.Both the two effects show better correlations with the gravimetric concentration of total dust than with the number concentration of fiber,thus can be used as the key effect indicators to recommend permissible concentration of the total dust.
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