Risk of respiratory diseases associated with Beedi workers of north 24 parganas in west Bengal, India

Beedi binding profession occupies a prominent place in rural India. For the beedi industry West Bengal is one of the major hub in India. It has to bealso noted that this profession is an unorganized sector of labour which lacks in access to proper health care. Here we present a study which was carried out with 171 beedi workers from two different locations Hasnabad and Kankra of North 24 parganas in West Bengal. Most of the beedi workers were found to be suffering from tuberculosis (TB) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which are two important respiratory diseases. A positive association was observed between the respective diseases with beedi making profession. Thereby we recommend greater governmental support for the beedi workers’ healthcare and routine check up for prevention and cure of these two afore-mentioned diseases in particular.