Wood dust may induce health risks on exposed timber or wood workers, one of which is ENT disorders. This article aimed to detect ENT pathologies found among woodworkers in Parakou. It was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out from 1st March to 31st May, 2012 in Parakou, North-Benin. It involved 703 carpenters and sawyers operating in timber workshops in Parakou, regardless of age and sex. The mean age of the wood-workers was 26.14 ± 7.77 years. Their seniority in the timber profession was on average 4.9 ± 2.64 years. All of them were males. It had been noticed that 81.6% of them did not comply with any safety measure for their protection. ENT pathology had been diagnosed in 60.3% of the timber workers. Rhinitises came first and affected 43.1% of the workers, followed by pharyngitises (14.1%). The histological nature of the only case of tumor observed in Parakou could not have been specified, as the patient refused to undergo anatomopathological examination. Measures should be taken to get Parakou timber workers to protect themselves.
Timber dust may induce pathologies like respiratory disorders in particular, including ENT-related ones on exposed timber workers [
In Africa where the working conditions are different from those of developed countries in which most of the studies are conducted, few articles have been devoted to the diseases induced by occupational exposure to wood dust. In Benin, up to this day, any study of screening of ENT disease among woodworkers has been realized. This one was carried out in order to screen the ENT pathologies found among Parakou timber workers in the north of Benin.
The study was a cross-sectional study with descriptive purpose based on a collection of prospective data. It was conducted from 1st March to 31st May, 2012 in the District of Parakou. The target population consisted of carpenters and sawyers working in workshops in Parakou, regardless of age and sex. In Parakou, carpenters and sawyers work in open-air workshops spread out over the town, by the streets or in empty compounds.
Using membership register, all the 749 wood-workers who were members of the three trade unions of the town were selected for the study. However only 703 wood-workers were included in the study; 46 wood- workers refused to participate because according to them, the study would disturb their work and was not profitable for them.
Data were collected, on the one hand, through an individual questionnaire submitted to timber workers, and on the other hand, through the ENT clinical examination of the latter. The clinical examination had particularly explored the ear canal and the eardrum with an otoscope, then the nasal cavity by means of anterior rhinoscopy as well as the oropharynx.
The studied variables were socio-demographic data (age, sex, type of timber work, seniority in the profession), ENT history, presence of ENT pathologies and the suggested diagnosis. Epi-info 3.5.1 software was used for the processing of collected data.
The 703 timber workers selected for the study based on inclusion criteria were all males. There were 607 car- penters (86.3%) and 96 sawyers (13.7%). The mean age of the timber workers was 26.14 ± 7.77 years with extremes from 9 years and 60 years and a median of 26 years.
Most of the timber workers (79.2%) were aged from 15 to 34 years. Only 9.8% were 34 year old and above.
The respondents’ seniority in wood work was on average 4.9 ± 2.64 years with extremes of 1 month and 25 years. The median was 5 years.
Among the 703 respondents, 549 (78.1%) were aware of the risks related to their professional activity and 154
Number | Percentage (%) | |
---|---|---|
Under 15 years | 77 | 11 |
15 - 24 years | 244 | 34.7 |
25 - 34 years | 313 | 44.5 |
35 - 44 years | 59 | 8.4 |
45 years and above | 10 | 1.4 |
Total | 703 | 100.0 |
Number | Percentage (%) | |
---|---|---|
Under 1 year | 18 | 2.6 |
1 - 5 years | 259 | 36.8 |
6 - 10 years | 237 | 33.7 |
Above 10 years | 189 | 26.9 |
Total | 703 | 100.0 |
(21.9%) ignored about them. However 582 timber workers i.e. 81.6% did not observe any safety measure for their protection. A bib was used as a protection measure by 117 timber workers (16.6%). The other protection measures used (1.8%) were glasses and a headset, each by one timber worker. Two timber workers used a combination of the three protection measures.
Out of the 703 respondents, 315 (44.8%) reported having suffered at least once from an ENT pathology.
Almost nine wood workers out of ten had a previous history of rhinitis.
Among the 703 respondents, 60.3% were diagnosed as carriers of an ENT disorder.
The main ENT pathologies diagnosed were rhinitis and pharyngitis.
The wood-workers of our cohort were young with a mean age of 26.14 years. They were younger than their counterparts from Lille in France (mean age: 35.4 years), from Italy (mean age: 37.8 years) [
Nearly half of the workers indicated having ENT case history and among the reported pathologies, rhinitis came well ahead followed by anginas. The rate of ENT pathologies (associated or not with sawdust) detected in Parakou’s timber workers based on the questionnaire and ENT clinical examination, was relatively significant (60.3%). An Italian study carried out in 2007 by Belvilacqua et al. in a population of timber workers, reported a 32.7% rate of ENT affections in timber workers [
Rhinitises came first among ENT pathologies as well as ENT case history in Parakou timber workers. Rhinitis is a pathology which is often reported in timber workers [
Number (N = 315) | Percentage | |
---|---|---|
Rhinitises | 277 | 87.9 |
Anginas | 22 | 7.0 |
Otitises | 13 | 4.1 |
Sinusitises | 3 | 1.0 |
Number (N = 703) | Percentage | |
---|---|---|
Rhinitis | 303 | 43.1 |
Pharyngitis | 99 | 14.1 |
Ear wax | 43 | 6.1 |
Deafness suspicion* | 24 | 3.4 |
Average chronic otitis | 10 | 1.4 |
Otitis externa | 6 | 0.9 |
Acute otitis media | 3 | 0.4 |
Nasal tumor** | 1 | 0.1 |
No pathology screened | 279 | 39.7% |
*Only with sawyers. **Histological examination not done, as the patient refused to do it.
installed in the open air, on street corners and isolated. This helps reduce substantially sawdust concentration in the air (which we did not measure), but at the expense of the environment.
A pharyngitis case had been found in 14% of timber workers in Parakou. In Italy, Veneri et al. reported 17.1% of pharyngitis cases and found a statistically significant relationship with sawdust [
The histological nature of the only tumor case observed in Parakou could not have been specified, since the patient refused to undergo the anatomo-pathological examination. However, we assume it was a non-malignant tumor considering its clinical characteristics, and not an adenocarcinoma. Moreover, in the studies where nasosinusal cancers in timber workers had been reported, workers have always been exposed for a long period. Thus, in their studies, Mayr et al. as well as Bimbi et al. reported average exposure duration of 32.3 years in patients suffering from cancer associated with timber [
We suspected 6% of deafness in timber workers, especially sawyers only. This deafness could be associated with a long and frequent exposure to noise insofar as only two patients among the workers protected themselves from noise.
In general, the other ENT pathologies screened in this study (ear wax and otitises) are not considered as an outcome of the exposure to sawdust.
ENT pathologies are relatively frequent among timber workers in Parakou. Among those pathologies, the most frequent ones are cases of rhinitis and sinusitis the relationship of which with wood work is well known. Everything still remains to be done as regards protection and prevention in this profession, both at individual and collective levels. At least wood workers should be encouraged to use dust masks; they should wet regularly the floor of their workshops to prevent the dust to be airborne. For this purpose, information and awareness/sensiti- zation programmes should be implemented and protection standards imposed by public authorities.