Occupational Airborne Exposure Research Articles

Smoking habits and lifetime occupational exposure to gases or dusts, including asbestos and quartz, in a Norwegian community.

Past or present occupational airborne exposure was recorded with a self-administered questionnaire sent to a random sample (N = 4992) of the 15- to 70-year-old population of Hordaland County, Norway. Completed questionnaires were returned by 90% of the sample. The respondents comprised 39% smokers, 20% ex-smokers, and 41% nonsmokers. Altogether 46% of the men and 12% of the women had a history of occupational gas or dust exposure. Occupational asbestos exposure was reported by 10% of the men and 0.4% of the women, and quartz exposure had been experienced by 8% of the men and 0.4% of the women. Smokers with a history of asbestos exposure represented 5% of the male population. Thirty percent of the smokers reported having been advised to stop smoking by a physician. The asbestos-exposed smokers had not received such advice more often than the smokers not exposed to asbestos. The findings indicate that airborne occupational exposure is widespread in the Norwegian County of Hordaland.

Clinical Implications of Air Pollution Research

Earth, Wind and Fire and their effects on man's health are the key issues of this book, which contains the 30 papers and the discussions of the fifth Air Pollution Medical Research Conference held Dec 5 and 6, 1974 and sponsored by the American Medical Association. A broadened concern is reflected in its organization into the following five key sections: respiratory diseases (6), cardiovascular diseases (5), immunology, hypersensitivity, and host defense (4), the CNS and sense organs (5), and illnesses in children (6). Subjects range from cellular reactions to benzo(a)pyrene in culture, to carbon monoxide-induced ventricular fibrillation, to the effects of airborne particles on the ventilatory function of schoolchildren. This volume reviews data of particular interest to scientists involved in or concerned with human responses to environmental air pollution largely derived from combustion of fossil fuels. The important issues of personal air pollution (from cigarette smoke) and occupational airborne exposures receive