Abstract
Ginning factories discharge large amounts of cotton dusts that lead to decreased pulmonary function in the exposed subjects. An attempt was made to study the biochemical profile of women laborers employed in ginning factory located in Tirupur, a textile based city in Coimbatore district of Tamilnadu, India. The blood parameters that were analyzed were hemoglobin, total and differential count of leucocytes, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), total proteins, immunoglobulins, total and isozymic content of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and histamine. Student's 't' test was carried out to compare the results with the control women. Correlation analysis was done between/within the biochemical parameters and also between the pulmonary function parameters results reported earlier by Jannet and Jeyanthi. Significant changes in the levels of hemoglobin, ESR, immunoglobins and histamine were reported in this study. Correlation studies between the pulmonary function parameters and biochemical parameters revealed significant negative correlation of FVC, FEV(1) and PEF with ESR (P <0.05). There was also positive correlation between immunoglobin G and histamine. A significant negative correlation was observed between LDH1 and LDH3 and between albumin and γ globulin. The study suggested that the ginning factory women laborers exhibited significant changes in the levels of certain biochemical parameters apart from the pulmonary functional changes.