Employment in sawmills and other wood-related industries has been associated with an increased risk for a variety of respiratory diseases, including bronchitis, asthma, extrinsic allergic alveolitis, and chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD). One potential respiratory hazard in sawmills that has not been studied is exposure of fungicides such as didecyldimethyl ammonium chloride (DDAC) and 3-iodo-2-propynyl butyl carbamate (IPBC) that are used in softwood sawmills in the Pacific northwest. This study would examine the risk of respiratory disease among workers exposed to fungicides through the computer linkage of hospital discharge data, information on workers' compensation claims, and information on a pre-existing cohort of 9,287 sawmill workers. Detailed information will also be collected on the types of fungicides and the amounts of fungicides used by all sawmill workers in the cohort. The immediate objective of this pilot study is to determine whether hospitalizations for asthma, COPD, and other respiratory diseases are associated with the relative levels of exposure to specific fungicides within a cohor of sawmill workers and compared to the general population. If there are excess risks, the number of cases attributable to fungicides will be calculated and compared to the number of accepted WCB claims arising from fungicide exposure, in order to determine whether there is under-reporting of disease. The long term objective of this pilot study is to examine the feasibility of using hospital discharge data and workers compensation claims information from the British Columbia Linked Health Data Base as a means of identifying of occupational diseases and injuries for epidemiologic studies and surveillance.
