Effect of quarry dust on hematological variations among stone quarry workers

Abstract

Stone quarries are an unregulated sector that generate harmful substances into the environment. Exposure to these inhalable substances poses to have a deleterious impact on the health of the workers.  India has the highest occupation related mortality in the world. The present study is a step towards finding out the association of stone quarrying and its harmful effect on the hematological parameters, to ascertain the changes due to dust inhalation. This study was performed on exposed group consisting of 75 individuals who belonged to different exposure levels to quarry dust (<5years, 5-10 years and >10 years) and the control group consisted of 45 selected individuals without any firsthand exposure. Significant difference was observed between the hematological profile of the groups by unpaired ‘t’ test and univariate analysis using SPSS version 21.0. The results showed that the values of white blood cell (WBC), lymphocytes (LYM), monocytes (MID), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), and platelets (PLT) were significantly increased in exposed workers (p ≤0.05*) whereas red blood cell (RBC) hematocrit (HCT), and Hemoglobin (Hb%) were significantly lower (p≤0.00**). This study emphasizes the importance of regular assessment of the environmental pollution, periodic health screening and necessitates the usage of personal protective equipment to protect them from occupational hazard.