ABSTRACT THE EFFECT OF COAL DUST EXPOSURE TO FEMORAL BONE OF MALE RATS (Rattus Novergicus)

Sari Fitrianingsih It is well known that coal dust exposure has been linked to respiratory/lung diseases, primarily its effect to coal mine workers. Chronic exposure has been reported that it is raising the incidences of pneumoconiosis, chronic bronchitis and asthma. But there has not been a single one of more deep-digging researches of the exposure effect on bone minerals. Based on heavy metals toxication theory about its effect on calcium rate in bone, hypothetically mineral atoms in coal dust will have the same effect on another bone minerals, such as sulfur, where as the effect will have considerable influence to the microstructure and the function of the bones. There has not been a research about the measurement of sulfur rate in bones in a population that susceptible to the coal dust exposure, so this research will be important to know how much is the coal dust exposure affecting the microstructure of the bones. This research is analytics observational. The purpose of this research is to measure and analyse the sulfur rate in femoral bone of male rats (Rattus novergicus) because of coal dust exposure. This research uses the femoral bone of male rats samples from Bank Jaringan PEROSI Banjarmasin and divide the sample to 7 groups (1 control group and 6 groups to get the exposure) with 4 samples in each group, the decision of using the number of samples is based on Federer formula (attachment 1). Samples choosing use purposive sampling technique. The sample is from male rats (Rattus novergicus), weigh 200-250 gram, age 2-3 months and exposed by respirable coal dust (diameter <10 m) dosage 6,25 mg/m3, 12,5 mg/m3 and 25 mg/m3 for an hour every day for 14 days and 28 days. The measurement uses X-Ray Fluoresence (XRF). Keywords: coal dust, sulfur, bone