Adverse respiratory and irritant health effects in airport workers in Taiwan

Airport workers are potentially exposed to aviation fuel or jet stream exhaust. The purpose of this study was to assess if there was an excess of adverse health outcomes among airport workers. Self-reported adverse chronic respiratory symptoms and acute irritative symptoms were assessed in a cross-sectional study among 106 airport workers (exposure group) and 305 terminal or office workers (control group) at the Kaohsiung international Airport (KIA), Taiwan. The prevalence rates for acute irritative symptoms were not significantly different between groups. A possible explanation may be that the concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that airport workers are exposed to is not sufficient to induce acute irritative symptoms, although this is not known for certain since data on the concentration of VOCs are lacking in this study. Chronic respiratory symptoms (cough and dyspnea), however, were significantly more common among the exposed group.