Stone Crushing Units
Stone crushing units are situated mainly in districts bordering West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand and in West Bengal most of them are situated in Bankura, Birbhum, Mindnapore and Purulia districts. This unorganized sector (tiny scale market) with really couple of number of workers offers with crushing of stones to distinct sizes as per requirement. Throughout the different processes of operation dust is evolved and the evolved dust if consists of free silica in higher percentage might result in silicosis. 1 of the areas in Birbhum district from exactly where circumstances had been referred towards the District Hospital at Suri for chest illness.
The Chest Physician, Dr. R. Ghosh of the hospital was surprised to know the circumstances appeared to be suffering from tuberculosis were not getting responded towards the remedy. Contemplating the circumstances to be resistant 1 various regiment of ATD attempted but in vain. On enquiry he could gather that the patients had been coming from the region exactly where the stone crushing units are there. He visited the place and approached the Institute of Wetland Management and Ecological Design, Govt. of West Bengal after which to this Centre. Both IWMED and ROHC(E) approached the Dept. of Environment, Govt. of West Bengal for funding for a study to ascertain the trigger. The Govt. of West Bengal via State Pollution Manage Board released some funds as well as the Director, NIOH, also contributed for conducting the study.
The objectives of the study had been a) to assess the operating environmental conditions around a crusher unit, b) to evaluate the well being status of the workers engaged in these stone crushing units and c) to recommend the remedial measures, if any for this. The environmental monitoring as per Central Pollution Control Board around the crushing units revealed that respirable particulate matter (RPM) and suspended particulate matter (SPM) were several fold higher than the prescribed limit value applicable to this market. The elevated values had been recorded for RPM and non respirable particulate matter (NRPM) during 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. compared to rest occasions of the day exactly where as the values had been identified to be decreased in the course of 10 p.m. to 6.30 a.m. The totally free silica estimation of the settled dust by FTIR approach revealed that it is in non-detectable range.
The pulmonary functions tests didn’t show any significant distinction in lung volumes of male subjects. However, in case of females the values had been much less than the control subjects. The pulmonary function impairment of the subjects has been given in Fig.4. It has been noted that restrictive type of pulmonary function impairments had been much more in exposed group but the obstructive and combined kind of impairments had been more in control groups. The restrictive sort of impairments is really a feature of dust related morbidity involving the lungs.
The radiological picture of the chest x-rays suggested two.88% of suspected pneumoconiosis and 1.8% of definite pneumoconiosis. Considering the free of charge silica level in non-detectable range, the prevalence rates had been on lower side compared to the environmental exposure. Moreover, their duration of exposure was also low. Nonetheless, the type of pneumoconiosis requirements to be ascertained.