Is glass fiber harmful to people?
The extent of skin damage depends on fiber diameter and surface roughness. It is now accepted that fiber diameter exceeds 5 mu m, which has a significant stimulating effect. A small number of people exposed to glass fiber and rock wool have skin allergies, but so far they have not been proved to be allergens. Eye and mucous membrane endanger: the worker that contacts glass fiber and so on can suffer conjunctivitis and keratitis, serious person can see the cornea is cloudy and local abscess. From the patient's eyes, a fiber less than 3 m in diameter can be developed. Pathological examination of the eyeball showed that the proliferation of corneal epithelial cells and the increase of mucin content in the conjunctiva showed mechanical stimulation. Similar pathological changes were confirmed by animal experiments. Experiments show that asbestos substitutes can produce toxicity and carcinogenicity similar to that of asbestos when the size and length of fibers are similar. Asbestos Substitutes dust has the effect of certain biological damage to human and animal, its biological activity and pathological effect is not asbestos, but as the mass production and use of Asbestos Substitutes, the harm can not be ignored.
0.5 O.7 m thick glass fibers can be detected in the lung lavage fluid of patients. In addition, the exposed chest of the bleached soil fiber, green slope stone, sepiolite and other workers showed atypical shadow, and the lung biopsy showed bronchiolitis, reticular fiber hyperplasia and fibrous foci. Skin damage: glass fiber workers have contact dermatitis, but some workers can gradually tolerance, known as "hardening" phenomenon.
Pulmonary function measured by FVC (forced expiratory volume) was lower than normal, but much less severe than asbestos workers. Pathological examination of lung biopsy of exposed glass fiber workers showed that there were glass fiber dust cell foci in lung tissue, slight hyperplasia of gum elements, lung cancer and lung abscess. When exposed to lower concentrations (2.5 ml / ml), the lung function of the workers was not changed even for up to 20 years. Workers exposed to high concentrations of glass fiber dust showed signs of upper respiratory tract irritation and attacks of asthma.
