Subjective Symptoms among Medical Students Associated with Low-Level Formaldehyde Exposure during Gross Anatomy Dissection Courses

Abstract

Subjective Symptoms among Medical Students Associated with Low-Level Formaldehyde Exposure during Gross Anatomy Dissection CoursesAbstract Number:1574 Mihoko Mori*, Tsuyoshi Saga, Koh-ichi Yamaki, and Tatsuya Ishitake Mihoko Mori* Department of Environmental Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan, E-mail Address: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author , Tsuyoshi Saga Department of Anatomy, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan Search for more papers by this author , Koh-ichi Yamaki Department of Anatomy, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan Search for more papers by this author , and Tatsuya Ishitake Department of Environmental Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan Search for more papers by this author AbstractMedical students and lecturers in Japan are exposed to formaldehyde (FA) during gross anatomy dissection courses. In 2011, our university renovated for the installation of dissection tables equipped with local ventilation systems and replaced the general ventilation system, which reduced the indoor FA level during dissection and the reports of subjective symptoms. This study aimed to clarify whether low-level FA exposure during the course was independently associated with students’ symptoms. We distributed questionnaires to 114 second-year students participating in the course (students exposed to FA) and 123 first-year students who have never participated in the course (students without FA exposure) at our university in May and July of 2013 (1 and 3 months, respectively, after the start of the course). The questionnaire covered 16 subjective symptoms (related to the eye, nose, and throat and indefinite complaints) among the second-year students during the course, current symptoms among the first-year students, sex, age, and allergy status. Participants who reported ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’ experiencing each subjective symptom were classified as having subjective symptoms. We analyzed the association between FA exposure and each subjective symptom using logistic regression analysis with adjusted for sex, age, and allergy symptoms. The symptoms significantly associated with exposure (and the associated odds ratios) were eye soreness (2.35), eye fatigue (1.83), tearing (2.62), itching of the nose (1.76), fatigability (2.42), and listlessness (2.09) in May and eye soreness (4.60), tearing (8.07), itching of the nose (2.15), sore throat (5.05), and fatigability (1.82) in July. The mean FA levels (±standard deviation) across 5 points in our laboratory in May and July were 0.11 (±0.08) ppm and 0.07 (±0.05) ppm, respectively. Even low-level FA exposure was associated with some students’ symptoms.