Abstract
Environmental exposure to dust from quarrying activities could pose health dangers to the population living nearby. This study aimed to investigate the health effects of dust exposure on people living close to quarry sites and compared them with those who live far from the quarry sites. A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted among 79 exposed participants, who lived less than 500 m away from the quarry sites, and 79 control participants who lived more than 500 m away. All participants answered a questionnaire on dust exposure at home and health effects, as well as performed a lung function test in which both reported and measured health effects were investigated. People who live in close proximity to the quarry sites reported exposure to dust at home (98%), land destruction (85%), plant leaves covered with dust (97%), and an inability to grow crops (92%). The exposed group reported significantly higher eye and nasal allergy (22% vs. 3%), eye soreness (18% vs. 1%), and dryness (17% vs. 3%), chest tightness (9% vs. 1%), and chronic cough (11% vs. 0%) compared to the control group. Lung function parameters were significantly lower among the exposed group compared to the control group; mean forced vital capacity (FVC) was 3.35 L vs. 3.71 L (p = 0.001), mean forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) was 2.78 L vs. 3.17 L (p = 0.001). Higher levels of airway restriction were found among the exposed group. Among the exposed group, lung function parameters worsened with the increasing closeness of home to the quarry site. This study demonstrates the negative health effects of environmental dust exposure among two communities living near quarry sites in Palestine. The results highlight the importance of developing and strictly enforcing rules and regulations in Palestine to protect population health.
Highlights
The stone and marble industry is one of the most important and active industrial sectors in Palestine and contributes to about 25% of Palestine’s overall industrial revenues and 4.5% of the total Palestinian Gross National Product [1]
This study showed that the population living in close proximity (50–500 m) to quarry sites in Birzeit town are exposed to dust in their households, with 69% reporting that the main source of dust in their area was the quarry activities, and with the dust increasing in dry and sunny weather
The present study has investigated the environmental effects of quarrying activities on the populations living nearby and compared the respiratory health status of those populations with a control group of the population who lives at more than 500 m away from quarry sites
Summary
The stone and marble industry is one of the most important and active industrial sectors in Palestine and contributes to about 25% of Palestine’s overall industrial revenues and 4.5% of the total Palestinian Gross National Product [1]. West Bank and Gaza Strip is 1124. These vary between quarries, factories, and cutting workshops [2]. Stone quarrying is a multistage process by which rock is extracted from the ground and crushed to produce aggregate, which is screened into desired sizes for immediate use or for further processing to manufacture secondary products [2]. The stone industry has a serious negative impact on the environment at both of its types of sites: quarries and cutting workshops. The rock extraction process in quarries is the main source of dust as well as other problems, including noise, vibration, and land disturbance [3,4]
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