Assessment of Occupational Exposure to Organic Solvents, Applied Safety Measures and Their Effect on Liver Function of Exposed Workers in Rubber Industry Tanta City – Gharbia Governorate

Abstract
Background: In rubber manufacturing, health hazards from organic solvents are due to their metabolic conversion to more hazardous substances which may lead to liver injury.
Aim of the Work: To measure indoor environmental ex-posure to some organic solvents, to assess applied safety measures in the workplace and to investigate liver function of occupationally exposed workers.
Subjects and Methods: This study was a cross sectional study conducted on rubber factoey production departments in the period from July 2017 up to October 2018. The study included 120 workers. Interview questionnaire with exposed workers and filling an audit workplace observational checklist by the researcher were used as tools of the study. Measuring environmental indoor exposure to some volatile organic compounds (benzene, toulene, ethylbenzene and xylene) was done by gas chromatography (GC). Liver function tests for exposed workers were measured.
Results: Environmental monitoring revealed higher levels of exposure to benzene, ethylbenzene and toluene (2.13, 560 and 380mg/m3 respectively), while level of xylene was within normal. The mean total score percent for checklist of applied safety measures was 17.94%+7.93%. The study indicated lack of training programs with no periodic medical examination was made for workers. The majority of workers had occupa-tional exposures to chemicals, fumes and dust (70.8%, 73.3% & 60%) respectively. Liver function tests were found to be normal in the majority of workers (93%).
Conclusion and Recommendations: There were insufficient applied safety measures in the factory & increased levels of benzene, ethylbenzene and toluene more than the permissible exposure limits. So, regular environmental monitoring, apply-ing the standard safety measures, and periodic medical exam-inations for workers are needed.