Evaluation of the Relationship between Pro-inflammatory Cyto-kines and Health Hazards in Workers Involved in Hazardous Waste Sites at Karnataka, India.

Background: Most of the studies have reported higher occupational health haz­ards on hazardous waste workers (HWW). However reports regarding the asso­ciation between health hazards and pro-inflammatory cytokines in HWW are scanty. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the relationship between occupational health hazards and serum pro-inflammatory cytokines in HWW. Methods: One hundred two subjects working in hazardous waste areas in differ­ent parts of Bangalore at Karnataka, India were enrolled into the study in 2009. Using questionnaire the respiratory morbidity and other work related problems in HWW was carried. The levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in study subjects were determined by using Enzyme-linked-immunosorbent assay kits (Pierce Biotechnology, USA). The differences of serum pro-inflammatory cytokines levels between the groups were computed by using non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test. SPSS 10.0 for windows version of statistical software was used in the analy­sis. Results: The morbidity conditions such as respiratory (34%), musculo-skeletal (24.5%), past illnesses (12.7%), dermatological (11.8%), gastrointestinal (9.8%), injuries due to contact with sharp objects & heavy equipments (7.8%) and nose and eye (4.9%) problems were observed in HWW. The levels of serum pro-in­flammatory cytokines such as IL-8 (P=0.041) & TNF-I± (P=0.040) significantly increased in landfill area workers and subjects having respiratory symptoms. Conclusion: The levels of serum pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-8 & TNF- I± were sig­nificantly associated with subjects having respiratory symptoms & further support­ing that they are inflammatory markers in respiratory symptoms.