Pink Eye Outbreak 2007: Huntsville Times, Alabama


Wood Smoke Damages the Eye: Cataract

Ocular morbidity and fuel use: an experience from India: January 2005

"Wood use was found to be an important factor in the aetiology of age dependent cataract" Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2005; 62 :66-69 © 2005 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
A Saha ,P K Kulkarni ,A Shah ,M Patel and H N Saiyed
National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad, India

ABSTRACT
The association of fuel use and ocular morbidity in a village in western India was investigated in a cross sectional prevalence survey involving 469 randomly selected subjects. All subjects were interviewed and underwent medical and ophthalmological examination. Wood use was found to be an important factor in the aetiology of age dependent cataract (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.03–4.34). When comparing wood only and LPG only users, the odds ratio was 3.47 (95% CI 1.05–11.50). In cases of eye irritation, coal use (OR 2.04, 95% CI 1.13–3.68) and cattle dung use (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.35–2.47) were shown to be important factors, while male sex posed a lesser risk.

Keywords: biomass fuels; cataract; eye irritation
Copyright © 2005 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd Correspondence to:
Dr A Saha, Research Officer (Medical), Occupational Medicine Division, National Institute of Occupational Health, Meghani Nagar, Ahmedabad-380 016, Gujarat, India; asimsaha2311@yahoo.co.in


Effect of smoke condensate on the physiological integrity and morphology of organ cultured rat lenses.

"Our present study indicates that metabolites of wood smoke condensate accumulate in the lens."Curr Eye Res. 1995 Apr;14(4):295-301. Rao CM, Qin C, Robison WG Jr, Zigler JS Jr.

Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India.

ABSTRACT
Smoke, either from cigarette smoking or from burning of organic fuels, has been proposed to be a major environmental risk factor for a variety of human diseases. Recently, smoke was implicated in cataract, an eye lens opacification which is a major cause of blindness. We have undertaken a study to investigate the effect of wood smoke condensate on the physiological integrity and morphology of organ cultured lenses. Lenses in organ culture are metabolically active and have functional defense systems, thus they provide an appropriate model for studying effects of smoke condensate. Our present study indicates that metabolites of wood smoke condensate accumulate in the lens. The ability of the lenses to accumulate rubidium-86 (mimic of potassium) and choline from the medium is compromised by exposure to smoke condensate. Rubidium efflux studies suggest that the damage is primarily at the uptake level and does not involve an overall increase in membrane permeability. Protein leakage experiments corroborate this suggestion. Histological data show distinct morphological changes such as hyperplasia, hypertrophy and multilayering of epithelial cells.

PMID: 7606915 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


 

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