A study of respiratory morbidity and pulmonary function among solderers in the electronics industry

Pulmonary function assessment of 197 solderers engaged in soldering printed circuit boards and other electronic components using lead-tin alloy impregnated solder in five major electronics workplaces in India was compared with the findings observed in 143 unexposed controls. Spirometry showed a significant impairment in the values of vital capacity (VC) and forced expiratory volume/forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) percent ratio in 47.2% of the solderers in comparison to 1.3% in the reference group (p less than 0.001). In the exposed group, female solderers particularly showed significantly higher (55.0%) prevalence of overall respiratory impairment in comparison to the 32.3% observed in their male counterparts (p less than 0.001). Bronchial obstruction was recorded in 7.6% of the solderers compared with 1.3% of the unexposed controls (p less than 0.01). The prevalence of restrictive and mixed ventilatory impairment was found to be 28.9 and 10.6%, respectively, among the exposed workers, while there was none among the control group. The solderers showed a predominantly restrictive pattern of pulmonary impairment that was mild in nature. Smoking caused no significant effect on the pulmonary impairment among the exposed workers. The study also did not show any significant differences in the prevalence of respiratory impairment between solderers exposed either less or more than 10 yr, thereby suggesting that there was no link between the respiratory impairment and duration of exposure. The industrial hygiene study conducted in the assembly section where soldering was done showed the mean concentration of lead to be 0.40 micrograms/m3 (range 0.12-0.43 micrograms/m3).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)