Saw mill industry

The use of chlorinated phenols in the saw mill industry is known to cause occupational health problems. In an investigation carried out in Sweden it was noted that the workers in the trimming-grading plant, where sawn timber is handled after chlorophenol treatment, often complain of cutanious irritations, respiratory difficulties and headache (5 , 53I. 

One of the branches under study is the saw-mill industry. In Finland 2,3,, 6-tetrachlorophenol is used for bluestain control of the timber during the summer season (May - OctoberI. It is known that PCDFs are the major contaminants in this particular formulation, see Table III. The sampling was performed twice, the first set of samples was taken after 6 months of non-exposure. The other sampling was performed after one month of chlorophenol exposure. In Table VIII we have collected the levels of chlorophenols found in the urine samples as well as the levels of PCDDs and PCDFs found in the blood samples. 

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