Investigation on health status of workers occupational exposed to microware radiation in Guangzhou

Objective To observe the adverse effect of occupational microwave exposure on the health status of workers in some enterprises in Guangzhou.

Methods The occupational health examination data of workers in 8 pharmaceutical and a rail transit enterprises during 2012-2014 in our hospital was processed. The data of 511 workers merely exposed to microwave radiation and 231 workers without any exposure to known occupational hazards was abstracted and evaluated.

Results The age of exposed workers (male 341 and female 170) varied from 21 to 52 with average (28.67 ±7.14)years old, while the exposure time varied from 1 to 37 with average (9.71 ±4.60)years. The age of non-exposed workers (male 154 and female 77) varied from 21 to 54 with average (29.02 ±5.65)years old. The exposed intensity of microwave radiation of these workers varied from 0.98-18.20 μW/cm²(median, 7.88 μW/cm²). The ECG examination showed that the abnormality of exposed workers was significant higher, such as sinus bradycardia or arrhythmia(P < 0.05). The blood examination showed that RBC and Hb level of exposed workers were significant lower(P < 0.05).

Conclusion Long term exposure to low intensity microwave radiation maybe affect the health of the occupational workers and more attention should be paid to control and prevention of microwave radiation exposure.