Assessment of dust exposure and chronic respiratory symptoms among workers in medium scale woodwork factories in akaki kality sub city, Addis Abeba.

Background: Wood dust is known to generate a wide variety of airborne wood dusts. Wood dust in a form of inhalable particulates can penetrate the lung tissues and affect respiratory health. There is limited study in chronic respiratory symptoms and wood dust exposure studies in Ethiopia. Objective: This study aims to assess prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms among workers, identify associated factors with chronic respiratory symptoms and measure the concentration of personal total wood dust exposure level in medium woodwork factories in Akaki Kality Sub City, Addis Ababa. Method: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among a sample of 506 randomly selected woodworkers in Akaki Kality Sub City, Addis Ababa in 12 randomly selected medium scale woodwork factories using British Medical Research Council respiratory symptoms questionnaire with a few modifications from March 14 –May 23, 2019. Epi-Info v.7.2 and SPSS v.21 were used for data entry and analysis, respectively. Descriptive statistics were used, and data were presented using tables and figures. A binary logistic regression model was used to determine the odds ratio of chronic respiratory health symptoms for each predictor. Forty personal dust measurements among 20 randomly selected woodworkers were done from the two randomly selected medium scale woodwork factories by fixing dust samplers around the breathing zone. The dust samples were analyzed gravimetrically using a standard microbalance scale. The dust level was described and compared with the threshold limit value of American conference of governmental industrial hygienist recommendation (10 mg/m3). Results: The prevalence of chronic respiratory health symptoms among woodworkers was 69.8% (95% CI: 66.0-73.8) with prevalence of cough (54.6%), phlegm (52.2%), wheezing (44.6%), breathlessness (42.1%) and chest pain (42.9%). None of woodworkers had any proper respiratory protective devices. Chronic respiratory health symptoms among woodworkers was significantly associated with ...