2007, Piran, Slovenia

Working Environment
BP as the reference values (Staessen 1990). The BP activity/sleep ratios were determined for
systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BPSD/BPSN, BPDD/BPDN) and for heart rate
(HRD/HRN). Subjects without a physiological decrease in blood pressure during sleep (with
BP ratio lower than 10%) are called non-deepers and the subjects with BP drop greater than
20% are called extreeme deepers. Mean BP load (the percentage of the measurement values
above the normal value) was also calculated. It should be within 20% of all values measured
during 24-h period.
RESULTS
Overweight was found in as much as 70% of the study group. Irregular food intake, declared
by 60% of the subjects, was probably one of the cause wich could be associated with the
character of the duties (shift work). Besides, the subjects in the test group had low level of
physical activity during their leisure time. Among the 50 workers, 31 people (62%) reported
cardiovascular symptoms, such as breathlesness, pain, discomfort in the chest or irregular
heart rhythm. This is the highest proportion of the symptoms compared to other groups
exposed to various occupational factors, studied by ourselves (Bortkiewicz et al. 1995,
Bortkiewicz et al. 2001). A history of arterial hypertension was reported by 11 subjects
(22%). During the medical examination, arterial hypertension was reported in total by 56% of
the patients. Our results differ considerably from results of a study of 7000 Air France
workers. The French study covers the group of airline ground workers and shows that their
arterial blood pressure was highest (3.9%) compared to aircraft flying personnel (pilots and
navigators 1.%, stewardesses 0.41%), while all those results were considerably lower than the
results for our group (Bisseliches et al. 1990). In our study using ABPM, mean arterial blood
pressure in all monitoring periods was normal (Table 2).
AVG
STD
BPS
(O)
127.9
10.1
BPD
(O)
80.4
7.2
Table 2. ABPM results in aircraft ground staff.
HR BPS BPD HR BPS BPD HR
(O) (D) (D) (D) (N) (N) (N)
[mm Hg]
78.3 131.5 83.3 81.3 112.9 67.6 66.3
9.2 10.4 7.4 9.8 12.0 8.9 10.0
BPSD/
BPSN
1.17
0.08
BPDD/
BPDN
1.24
0.11
Table 3. The percentage of subjects with elevated arterial blood pressure in periods
BPSD BPSN BPSO BPDD BPDN BPDO
Group 18% 16% 18% 14% 12% 14%
The percentage was higher than in the group of the GSM operators or workers occupationally
exposed to fine-particulate dust, but it was lower than in the people occupationally exposed to
50 Hz or UHF/VHF electromagnetic fields (EMF) (Gadzicka et al. 1997) as well as in air
traffic controllers ( Sega et al. 1998). Mean BP load of both systolic and diastolic blood pressures
in the study group was higher than normal, 28% and 24%, respectively. In 50% subjects the
systolic BP load, and in 44% subjects the diastolic BP load was higher than normal. Table 4
gives the percentages of non-deepers and extreeme deepers in the study group.
Table 4. Percentages of people with disturbed BP control.
BPSN BPDN
Non-deepers 18% 6%
Extreemedeepers
36% 62%
HRD/
HRN
1.24
0.14
555