الفهرس 
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Abstract
This work was conducted in some joinery workshops (Menoufia governorate) to study health disorders which might arise among workers in wood furniture industry. The study included 100 wood furniture workers as the exposed group and 100 individuals from the workers‟ relatives as a control group. Both groups were matched for age, sex, residence, marital status, socioeconomic standard and educational level and gave consents to participate in the study.
All participants were interviewed using a predesigned questionnaire about respiratory, auditory and dermatological manifestations. Also, they were examined generally and locally for chest, ears and skin. Spirometry as well as audiometry were carried out for both the exposed group and controls aiming to assess Spiro-metric measurements and hearing thresholds; respectively.
Environmental studies were done by measuring respirable wood dust and assessment of noise at the level of workers ears (using sound level meter).
The following results were obtained:
- The environmental measurements of the workplace were lower than permissible exposure limits (PEL) by the Egyptian Environmental Law No. 4 Decree 1095, (2011) for respirable wood dust and exceed PEL stated by NIOSH (2011).
- Noise level was higher than the PEL by Egyptian Environmental Law No. 4 Decree 1095, (2011) and NIOSH (2011).
- The prevalence of respiratory manifestations e.g. rhinitis, cough, expectoration, wheezes and dyspnea was significantly higher among the exposed group than the controls. The prevalence of rhinitis and expectoration was significantly increased with the increase in work duration among the exposed workers.
- Concerning the mean values of spirometric measurements the FVC%, FEV1%, FEV1/FVC % and PEF% were significantly lower among the exposed group than the controls. Abnormal spirometric measurements took genuine restrictive, genuine obstructive and combined patterns. The mean values of FVC%, FEV1%, FEV1/FVC %, FEF25-75% and PEF% were significantly decreased with work duration increase and a significant negative correlation was found between work duration and FVC%, FEV1%and PEF%. Exposed smokers experienced a significant lower mean value of the FEV1/FVC% and PEF% than the exposed non-smokers. On comparing non-smokers in the exposed and the control groups, FVC% and FEV1% mean values were significantly lower in the exposed group indicating the deteriorating effect of wood dust exposure on ventilator function in the exposed workers.
- Regarding auditory manifestations, the exposed workers experienced a significant higher prevalence of hearing impairment; tinnitus and ear ache than the controls.
- Audiometric findings showed different grades of hearing impairment. Noise induced hearing loss is bilateral with a V-dip depression in the audiogram.
- In addition, dermatological manifestations (redness, dry skin with scaling, fissures or cracks and itching) were significantly higher among the exposed group than the controls.
Summary and Conclusions
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from the results of the study it is possible to conclude that, exposure to high levels of wood dust in wood furniture industry could adversely affect the respiratory system of workers that appears as abnormal respiratory manifestations and abnormal spirometric measurements. Also, continuous exposure to noise level more than 90 dB(A) in joinery workshops could be associated with abnormalities in audiograms of the exposed workers in the form of threshold shifting and V-dip depression. In addition, handling some types of woods was associated with allergic skin manifestations in the wood furniture workers.