To analyze the health hazards of fluorine and its inorganic compounds to workers exposed to fluorine, and to provide technical support for the protection of workers exposed to fluorine and the revision of occupational disease diagnostic standards.

In January 2019, 677 workers exposed to fluorine in a fluorine chemical company in Hunan Province were selected by cluster sampling, and occupational health examination was conducted. The suspected occupational poisoning workers were diagnosed as occupational diseases, which were divided into poisoning group and non-poisoning group. T test and Pearson χ ² test were used for statistical analysis.

A total of 73 occupational chronic fluorosis patients were diagnosed. 93.15% (68/73) of the skeletal lesions were multiple, and the most frequent sites were the upper tibia and fibula. 35.00% (21/60) , 50.00% (18/36) and 58.82% (10/17) of the tibia, fibula, ulna and radius had periosteal changes only on one side. Other abnormal results were mainly dental calculus (60.71%, 411/677) , fatty liver (48.89%, 331/677) , abnormal electrocardiogram (44.17%, 299/677) , decreased bone mass (33.53%, 227/677) and increased ALT (13.15%, 89/677) . Compared with non-poisoning group, the age, length of service exposed to fluoride and fatty liver detection rate of poisoning group were higher, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.01) .

The changes of long bone caused by inorganic fluoride only occur in one side, so the basic location of occupational health examination should include bilateral long bone to avoid missed diagnosis. It is difficult to diagnose occupational poisoning with single slight periosteal ossification, it is suggested that the standard should be revised to specify the degree.

Fluorine; Fluorine compounds; Occupational health examinations; Poisoning; Osteomatosis