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Health Survey Again Finds "No Work-Related Respiratory Disease in Australian Glasswool and Rockwool Manufacturing Workers"

A follow-up study of a two year study of the respiratory health of Australian glasswool and rockwool manufacturing plant workers has again found no evidence of work-related lung disease.

The original survey was conducted in 1990-1992 by the Sydney based Institute of Respiratory Medicine (IRM), on behalf of the Insulation Wools Research Advisory Board (IWRAB). The latest survey was conducted in 1995 again by the IRM on behalf of IWRAB.

IWRAB was established in 1990 as an independent advisory body by the Fibreglass and Rockwool Insulation Manufacturers Association (FARIMA) to provide independent advice about the health and safety of glasswool and rockwool insulation. IWRAB consists of three occupational health and safety research experts, three union nominees and three employer nominees who represent both manufacturing and end-user interests.

IWRAB Chairman, Mr. Lindsay Fraser, said in Sydney that the study of 450 factory workers and 87 clerical workers employed at four glasswool and two rockwool insulation plants in NSW, Victoria and South Australia (overall response rate 86%) provided continuing reassurance that working in the Australian glasswool and rockwool insulation manufacturing industry was not associated with adverse worker health effects.

Mr Fraser said that this latest study was particularly significant because it had not only repeated the detailed lung function tests and x-rays carried out in 1990-92 by the IRM, but had also been a ‘world-first’ in using high resolution computerised tomography (HRCT) for screening 138 people who had been employed 10 or more years in the industry.

"HRCT" is a particularly sensitive way of studying the lung, but its use in this study was not without problems and further research was thought necessary in order to develop reliable methods for interpreting HRCT’s.

"A reading protocol similar to that developed years ago by the International Labor Organisation (ILO) for standard chest x-rays was now needed for HRCT", Mr Fraser said:

The IRM’s Conclusions from the Study Were :

No evidence that the length of time employed in the industry had any adverse effect on respiratory health;

No evidence that working in any one of the six plants had any adverse effect on respiratory health compared with working in the other plants;

No evidence that working in any particular employment group within the factory was associated with any adverse effect on respiratory health compared with working in the office;

No evidence that working with rockwool was associated with significantly worse respiratory health outcomes than working with glasswool;

There was a high prevalence of smoking in the workforce, and, as a group, those who smoked had impaired respiratory health;

There was a small improvement in spirometric function and a decline in the number of Workers with airway hyper responsiveness between 1990-92 and 1995 in workers who participated in both surveys;

There was no radiological evidence of interstitial lung disease attributable to exposure to glasswool or rockwool fibres;

The prevalence of pleural plaques, identified on chest X-rays, was 1.3% which is lower than in other studies of glasswool and rockwool workforces;

High resolution computerised tomography (HRTC) of those employed ten or more years identified a prevalence of pleural thickening in 25%, but no difference in prevalence between clerical and factory workers;

There was poor agreement between plain X-rays and HRCT, and between HRCT readers, in the identification of pleural changes. The role of HRCT scans in the diagnosis of pleural changes in this setting requires further research;

The respiratory health of the Australian glasswool and rockwool manufacturing workforce was slightly, but significantly, better than that of a general population of employed Australian adults;

Employment in this industry is not associated with an identifiable adverse effect on respiratory health.

Mr Fraser said that IWRAB will be considering the need for future research in light of these reassuring findings.

"In particular, IWRAB will review the possibility of international collaboration in the development of a standard method for reading HRCT studies similar to that developed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for the reading of standard chest X-rays", he concluded.

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