Abstract:
Introduction: Air pollution continues to receive a great deal of interest worldwide due to its negative impacts on human health and welfare. Cement industry has been listed as one of the 17 most polluting industries. Many studies have revealed the effects of cement dust on the respiratory system (larynx and lungs), gastro intestinal system (oral cavity and teeth, liver, stomach and colon), urinary system (kidney), cardiovascular system and the lymphatic system (spleen and thymus).
Objectives: To determine the health effects on a population living in the proximity a cement factory.
Methodology: The study was a cross sectional study with 203 participants. 96 exposed participants living within 5km radius of cement factory were selected and 107 participants living 15km away from the cement factory were selected as control.
A modified respiratory symptom questionnaire was used to assess respiratory symptoms experienced by the participants in the two communities and peak expiratory flow rate was also measured for all the selected participants.
Results: In this study we found out that the exposed population had higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms with 35.4% shortness of breath, 40% wheeze, 58.3% cough, 36.5% morning phlegm and 2.1% chronic bronchitis compared to unexposed population with 15% shortness of breath, 33.6% wheeze, 27.1% cough, 10.3% morning phlegm and 0.0% chronic bronchitis. These differences were found to be statistically significant except wheeze and chronic bronchitis that were not statistically significant. The exposed population also had higher prevalence of eyes, throat and skin irritation than unexposed population. The differences were statistically significant except for throat irritation. PEFR decreased significantly in exposed population compared to unexposed population.
Conclusions: The findings in this study suggested that people living in the proximity of cement factories are more likely to develop respiratory symptoms and other symptoms such as eyes, throat and skin irritations than unexposed population. These may be as a results of dusts produced by the cement plant which is known to cause several health problems in human, vegetation and environment.
Key words: Respiratory symptoms, community, industrial pollution, cement dust and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR).
