Cytological and Environmental Effects of Cement Dust Exposure on People of Alaked Village

Abstract

This study was conducted at Aldamar city in Alaked village, during the period between November 2008 to June 2009 to evaluate cytological and environmental effects of cement dust exposure, and to compare the cytomorphological changes among the study group using Papanicolaou and May Grunwald Giemsa staining techniques. Five hundred participated in this study. Personal information obtained using questionnaire interview. The harmful effect of cement dust is obvious from the clinical symptoms; 22.6% has skin symptoms, 49.0% eye irritation in addition to chronic respiratory symptoms which include 37% chronic cough, 40.6% sneezing, 28.6% breathlessness, 35.8% chest tightness, 7.0% have thyroid disease and 2.8% are asthmatic. The cytological examination showed some metaplastic and inflammatory changes. 7.6% of samples showed bacterial inflammation, 5.8% for each chronic and acute inflammation, 2.0% actinomycosis, 0.8% candidiasis, 5.8% metaplastic changes and only 0.4% showed atypical squamous cells. The study population was classified according to their ages to compare the medical conditions and cytological results. The age group was statistically significant with residence, skin symptoms, eye irritation, breathlessness, chest tightness and sneeze, but it wasn’t statistically significant with cytological changes and the cytological results wasn’t statically significant to residence and gender. Papanicolaou stain in sputum cytology proved to be superior to May Grunwald Giemsa stain. This study recommended the use of Papanicolaou stain for sputum cytology screening. Periodically sputum screening program for early detection of any pre malignant and chronic infection is recommended.