Abstract
BackgroundWe are observing a growing trend towards the use of waste incineration in waste-to-energy (WTE) plants in Italy. Various authors started to investigate their potential health effects, but without univocal outcomes. The aim of this study is to assess whether or not main pulmonary function indexes could be decreased in a group of workers employed in a municipal solid WTE plant located in Central Italy, and if there’s a correlation between the levels of exposure to airborne pollutants and alterations in the pulmonary apparatus.MethodsThe study was conducted with a retrospective cohort approach. We reviewed data from clinical records of 58 waste-to-energy plant workers undergoing annual health surveillance in the period 2010–2015. We considered the exposure to airborne dust and the main parameters of respiratory function (FVC, FEV1, Tiffeneau Index and FEF 25–75%) at time zero and after a period of 5 years. We divided our study population into two groups: low (< 1 mg/m3) and high (> 1 mg/m3) exposure. We estimated odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) adjusted for potential confounders.ResultsWe observed a decrease in lung function parameters both in high and in low exposure group after a five-years exposure period. FEV1, FEV1/VC ratio and FEF 25–75% were worst in more exposed group, even if this difference resulted not significant at Wilcoxon test.ConclusionsActive employee in WTE plants is associated to a non-significant worsening in the main parameters of lung function after 5 years exposure. Clinical significant of these variations need to be assessed.
Highlights
We are observing a growing trend towards the use of waste incineration in waste-to-energy (WTE) plants in Italy
Our study aimed to evaluate the pulmonary effects of exposure to airborne pollutants among a group of WTE workers employed in a central Italy plant, by investigating retrospectively the decrease in main pulmonary function indexes over a period of 5 years
Despite the community concerns about potential health effects of WTE plants, only few studies evaluated the lung function changes related to dust exposure among workers employed in those setting
Summary
We are observing a growing trend towards the use of waste incineration in waste-to-energy (WTE) plants in Italy. The aim of this study is to assess whether or not main pulmonary function indexes could be decreased in a group of workers employed in a municipal solid WTE plant located in Central Italy, and if there’s a correlation between the levels of exposure to airborne pollutants and alterations in the pulmonary apparatus. A growing trend towards the use of waste incineration in waste-to-energy (WTE) plants has been observed in Italy in the last 10 years. This phenomenon originated concerns on potential health effects caused by this kind of waste disposal procedure. In published studies the levels of airborne dust ranged from 0.01 to 0.7 mg/ m3 [4]
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