Toxic effects of chronic exposure to dyes among workers of synthetic textile industries

Abstract

Background: textile industry is one of the major industries in Egypt. However, the working environment is associated with potential health hazards. Aim of the work: to study the toxic effects of different types of dyes among workers in textile industries and its effect on their respiratory, renal, and immunological systems. Subjects and methods: this study was conducted on 50 male workers exposed to textile dyeing of different ages, selected from all textile plants with dyeing industry at Borg Al-Arab City compared with 50 males, who were not exposed to textile dye as a control group. Results: both groups were comparable as patient age, while smoking was significantly increased in exposed group (38.0% vs 14.0%). Reported symptoms such as itching, abdominal pain, etc. and respiratory symptoms were significantly increased in exposed group. There was significant increase of AST, ALT, total bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase, urea and serum creatinine in study when compared to control group. Furthermore, there was statistically significant decrease of respiratory function percentage of predicted in study group, and there was statistically significant increase of serum lead concentration in study when compared to the control group (17.18±2.35 vs 6.74±2.29 respectively). In addition, there was significant increase of IgM and IgG in study group. Conclusion: workers in textile industry were significantly exposed to health hazards especially on respiratory system. However, multi-organ affection is the role with increased oxidative stress.