Monitoring the State of the Immune System of Persons Working in the Potassium Salt Industry

The immune status of basically healthy personnel of OAO Uralkalii and OAO Sil'vinit was studied for three years (1998–2000) to assess the effect of the workplace environment on the parameters of the immune system. All probands were divided into groups depending on their exposure to salts or halite waste. Annual examination did not reveal any statistically significant differences between the parameters of immunograms in the groups studied. The parameters of the humoral component of the immune system of potassium-industry workers manifested a stable tendency toward normalization, irrespective of whether or not these persons were exposed to salts, and the annual contents of T and B lymphocytes and phagocytizing cells were stable within the regional standards.     

Assessment of the Immune Status of Women Working in the Potassium Salt Industry and Their Children

The state of the immune system was studied in the women working at the OAO Uralkalii (Berezniki) and OAO Sil'vinit (Solikamsk), where they were permanently exposed to salts and halite waste, and their children born after at least three years of such exposure. The control group consisted of women who had no occupational contact with salts and halite wastes and of their children. No significant differences between the differential leukocyte counts and immunograms of the women working at the OAO Uralkalii and OAO Sil'vinit and their children were found. The main parameters of the immune system of women and their children both in the first and second groups were within the norm.