The Effect of Marble Dust on Different Pulmonary Parameters NJIRM 2011; Vol. 2(3). July- September eISSN: 0975-9840 pISSN: 2230 - 9969 7 The Effect of Marble Dust on Different Pulmonary Parameters in Marble Factory Workers Dr. Qazi Rais Ahmed * , Dr. Soudeep Kr. Sau ** , Dr. Sanjit Kr. Kar *** and Dr. Prakash Ch. Dhara **** *Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital, Bareilly, U.P., **Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, Institute of Dental Sciences, Bareilly, U.P. ,*** Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Universal College of Medical Sciences, Bhairahawa, Nepal.,**** Professor, Ergonomics and Sports Physiology Div., Dept. of Human Physiology with Community Health, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, W.B. Abstracts: There are numbers of marble factories are found in Agra, UP, India and the numbers of workers perform their duties to those factories to maintain their family wages. Majority of the workers are habituated to smoke during their working period. The marble dust as well as smoking habits both affects the pulmonary parameters. Therefore an attempt has been taken to find out the severity of the affect of dust on pulmonary parameters in marble factory workers with respect to nonsmokers and residing far away from the marble factories, i.e., persons residing in Bareilly, UP, India. The study was performed on 90 male marble factory workers in which 62 workers with smoking habits and 28 workers are nonsmokers. And they are compared with 20 smokers and 20 non-smokers subjects, which are denoted as control group, considering same economic status. The subjects’ height and weight were taken following the standard procedure. The pulmonary parameters [Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), Forced Expired Volume-1 st sec. (FEV 1 ), Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR), Forced Expiratory Flow (FEF 25-75% ) and Maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV)] were determined by means of a portable multifunctional computerized spirometer. The results indicates that there was a significant difference in FVC (p<0.001) and FEV 1 (p<0.01) between control group and marble workers with smoking habits. It may be concluded that the workers of marble factories are directly affected from the dust of marble during working as well as non working period also, due to they were residing near the marble factories. This direct effect of the workers due to the inhalation of marble dust through the respiration, which might be causes restrictive or obstructive lung diseases. Key words: Marble factory workers, Smokers, Non smokers, Pulmonary parameters. [Ahmed Q R et al. NJIRM 2011; 2(3) : 07-10] Author for correspondence: Dr. Qazi Rais Ahmed, Asst. Prof., Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital, Bareilly, UP- 243 006. Email : qazihmd@yahoo.com Introduction: Exposure to marble dust occurs across a range of marble factories and the worker involved in cutting and transportation of stone. In India, the stone cutting units are an unorganized sector of the countries. The numbers of workers are small in each unit. The workers usually inhale a large amount of dust generated by the cutting units, and this dust contains silicon dioxide or free silica. Free silica is responsible for causing the occupational diseases, silicosis and so on. Silica refers to the chemical compound silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ), which occurs in a crystalline or non crystalline (amorphous) form. Crystalline Silica may be found in more than one form (polymorphism). The polymorphic forms of crystalline silica are alpha quartz, beta quartz, Tridymite, cristobalite, keatite, coesite, stishovite, and moganite. 1, 2, 3 Due to the continuous exposure of marble dust can causes obstructive or restrictive lung diseases. It may increase the hyper responsiveness of bronchial mucosa, dry cough etc. The restrictive lung disease results in decrease in vital capacity and pulmonary parameters depending upon the duration of exposure to the marble dust. The previous studies indicate that the stone crushing factory workers and agricultural workers suffers from pulmonary impairment due to dust particle in the environment 4 . The marble factory workers mainly involved in cutting and transportation of marble plates. That is why they were remain exposed in marble dust during working as well as non working time period also. The marble dust particles have high concentration of silica. Associated with a history of high exposures from tasks that produces small particles of air borne dust with a high silica content, Such as sand