Occupational morbidity among children employed in brassware industry

Fifty seven male children between ages of 10-16 years engaged in the brassware industry at Moradabad in Northern India were studied for occupational morbidity. The finding were compared with those obtained in the children (n = 29) engaged in other ancillary units which did not involve exposure to the metal fumes and dust in their work environment. The study showed a high prevalence of respiratory morbidity in the children engaged in the main units in comparison to those employed in the ancillary units (40.3 vs 27.6%; p less than 0.05). This was associated with significantly higher prevalence of pulmonary impairment in the former group (21.0%) particularly demonstrating restrictive ventilatory abnormality (10.5%) followed by bronchial obstruction (7.0%). The high respiratory morbidity may be attributed to chronic exposure to the fumes and dust of the metals such as nickel, chromium and cadmium. The children employed in the ancillary as well as in the main units showed high prevalences of musculo-skeletal disorders (27.6 and 22.8%) which may be caused by sustained faulty posture adopted during work and physical stress.