Respiratory symptoms, airflow obstruction and asthma in a cohort of workers from the stone benchtop industry.

Objectives: Compared with silicosis, there has been less research on other respiratory diseases in stone benchtop industry workers. Therefore, we explored respiratory symptoms, airflow obstruction and asthma, including associations with workplace dust exposure, in these workers.

Methods: This study included voluntary participants from a stone benchtop industry screening programme conducted in Victoria, Australia, which included chest X-rays, respiratory function tests and a respiratory symptom questionnaire. Asthma status was determined based on self-report, and respiratory function tests were used to measure airflow obstruction. The associations between workplace dust exposure and respiratory symptoms were compared using logistic regression, adjusting for age, smoking status and silicosis.

Results: The prevalence of self-reported asthma in this cohort was 20% (90/450 workers). Workers with histories of high workplace dust exposure, even those without silicosis, were more likely to have self-reported asthma and to report respiratory symptoms. Those with obstruction but no bronchodilator response on respiratory function tests were more likely to report histories of high workplace dust exposure. For over half of workers with wheeze or difficulty breathing, symptoms improved at weekends and/or on holidays.

Conclusions: There was a high prevalence of self-reported asthma in stone benchtop industry workers and an association between workplace dust exposure and airflow obstruction without bronchodilator response, as well as self-reported asthma, independent of silicosis. These findings suggest a potential role of artificial stone dust exposure in the development of obstructive lung disease, in addition to silicosis.