A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RESPIRATORY PROBLEMS BETWEEN THE RICE MILL EMPLOYEES AND THEIR CONTROLS WORKING IN MAHABOOBNAGAR TOWN, TELANGANA STATE.

Corresponding Author:
Dr. Chintamala Koteswaramma,
H. No. 7102, Block No.7,
Meerpet, Near Balapur X-Road,
Saroornagar Mandal-500097,
Rangareddy District, Telangana State.
E-mail: chkoti.eshwari@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND

Agricultural respiratory diseases are also an important public health problem and the affected population is large one and the respiratory diseases due to exposure to rice mill dust are at least in theory preventable globally. The aims of this study is to estimate and compare the pattern of respiratory problems including their socio-demographic and environmental factors between the rice mill employees and their controls who are working in Mahaboobnagar town, Telangana.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

It was a cross-sectional and comparative study done over a period of 6 months from September 2015 to March 2016 among the workers of 4 rice mills with simple random sampling technique which were located in Mahaboobnagar town. We conducted our study in a convenient sample population, as it was a pilot project with constrained resources where exposure and control group was 1:1 (100 each) ratio. The study tool (questionnaire) was taken from the textbook of “Occupational lung diseases by Fishman and ----”^[15] Eligibility criteria of study population: (1). Exposure group was the employees of 4 selected rice mills and Control group was selected from the 4 government offices of Mahaboobnagar town who were present on the day of the study and given the informed consent to participate in the study. The principal investigator was the author (Associate Professor) and trained house surgeons. Data analysis: Data was double checked for any error of translation after the entry into Microsoft Excel 2010 and the results were interpreted in the form of rates/ratios and presented as tables, bar charts and pie diagrams. Chi-square test was used to study the strength of association between the different variables.

RESULTS

More than 80% of both Exposure and Control population were found in 31 - 50 years’ age group and 4% more males were working in Exposure group than Control group and it was reverse in case of female gender. The difference found in the prevalence of respiratory morbidity was statistically significant (48.38%) between Exposure and Control groups (P < 0.0000045, Odds ratio= 4.47). Those who have both rice dust and tobacco smoke exposure were having significantly high (23.02%) respiratory morbidity than those without rice dust exposure of total study prevalence (P < 0.0046, Odds ratio= 2.70). The present study shows that the prevalence of respiratory morbidity was high among the employees who were involved in sweeping and cleaning the rice mill (93.75%) followed by people dealing with the husk and milling other products (filling and packing, etc.) with 69.23% and filling the bags with rice grains with 50% and was among other works. Study observed that as the duration of exposure to rice dust was increasing, the severity and prevalence of the respiratory symptoms was also increasing (P < 0.0014, Odds ratio= 16.50).

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of respiratory morbidity was significantly high among economically more productive age group (31 - 50 years), males and smokers with rice dust exposure and among those who clean and sweep the floor of the rice mills, and as duration of exposure increases the severity of the respiratory morbidity also increases. Thus, we strongly recommend that every rice mill management should adopt the dust control and personal protective measures strictly including periodic health examinations to their employees, otherwise license to run that mill must be cancelled by the government.

KEYWORDS

Respiratory Morbidity, Hazardous Rice Dust, Paddy, Milling, Occupational Exposure, Duration of Exposure, Economic Status and Literacy Level.