Acute Symptoms in Firefighters who Participated in Collection Work after the Community Hydrogen Fluoride Spill Accident

Table 1 Comparison between the general characteristics and symptoms according to distance from the accident site

	Less than 100 m (N = 140)		100 m-1 Km (N = 173)		More than 1 Km (N = 35)		p-value*
	N	%	N	%	N	%
Age (years)							0.000
< 30	21	58.3	14	38.9	1	2.8
30 ~ 39	56	51.4	44	40.4	9	8.3
40 ~ 49	45	32.4	79	56.8	15	10.8
≥ 50	18	28.1	36	56.3	10	15.6
Gender							0.031
Male	138	42.1	157	47.9	33	10.1
Female	2	10.0	16	9.2	2	5.7
Smoking							0.532
No smoker	100	42.2	112	47.3	25	10.5
Current smoker	40	36.0	61	55.0	10	9.0
Job							0.000
Firefighter	116	47.3	102	41.6	27	11.0
Police officer	20	43.5	26	56.5	0	0.0
Volunteer firefighter	4	11.8	23	67.6	7	20.6
Special warfare reserved force	0	0.0	22	95.7	1	2.9
Abnormal symptoms
Throat^†	24	17.1	36	20.8	4	11.4	0.082
Nose^‡	18	12.9	17	9.8	6	17.1	0.924
Eye^§	42	30.0	30	17.3	7	20.0	0.026
Lung^∥	49	35.0	50	28.9	8	22.9	0.115
Skin**	15	10.7	20	11.6	3	8.6	0.886
Heart⁺⁺	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	-
Nerve^‡‡	15	10.7	14	8.1	1	2.9	0.141
Stomach^‡‡‡	4	2.9	5	2.9	1	2.9	0.993

*Chi-square test for trend.
^†Throat pain, change of voice, dry mouth.
^‡Rhinorrhea, nasal obstruction, nasal pain, nasal bleeding.
^§Ocular pain, red eye, blurred vision, lacrimination.
^∥Cough, sputum, chest discomfort, dyspnea.
**Skin pruritus, skin rash, skin pain.
⁺⁺Palpitation, left chest pain.
^‡‡Fatigue, Headache, dizziness, arm/leg claudication, muscle weakness, inattention, muscle pain.
^‡‡‡Vomiting, dyspepsia, nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain.

ISSN: 2052-4374