Abstract

GUTIERREZ ANTEZANA, Angélica Faviola  and  LIZARRAGA HURTADO, Tito Leoncio. Health effects in workers exposed to titanium dioxide. Med. segur. trab. [online]. 2016, vol.62, n.242, pp.79-95. ISSN 1989-7790.

Main Objective: To review through scientific research whether health problem have been found in workers exposed to titanium dioxide. Methods: Systematic review of research collected in the MEDLINE (PubMed), Cochrane Library, LILACS, OSH UPDATE, International Labour Organization Library (ILO), Science Web, IBECS data. Terms used as descriptors and texts were: MeSH (thesaurus developed by the US National Library of Medicine), considering adequated words: "Titanium", "Ocupational Exposure" and "Ocupational Diseases". Results: 61 articles were retrieved. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria obtaining 14 items (4 cohort, 3 case-control studies, descriptive cross-sectional observational study 1, 4 clinical case studies and 2 case series studies), in which about 90% of the study population were male. Among the workers exposed are: Painters, masons, mechanics and employees engaged in the manufacturing of artificial jewelry, painting, paper, paints, varnishes and producers of TiO₂. The most frequently encountered pathologies were respiratory disorders, followed by cardiovascular disorders, genetic damage from exposure to TiO₂ nanoparticles. No association between exposure to TiO₂ and lung cancer was found. No evidence of increased mortality exposure was found. Discussion/Conclusion: With the selected studies, we cannot establish a significant association between occupational exposure to TiO₂ and health effects, although respiratory, cardiovascular and systemic alterations in exposed workers have been described.

Keywords : Titanium dioxide; Occupational Diseases; Occupational Exposure.

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