Assessment of occupational respiratory complaints and spirometric indices in cleaner workers in kashan medical university 2016

Cleaners make up a considerable part of workers in the worldwide and they perform their services as activities in home environment, industry, and work in hospitals and so on. Studies show that cleaning products contain a mixture of chemicals that many of them may affect health of the workers during be exposed to the breathing. So this study investigated the effects of these materials on a group of cleaners.
Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional study has been conducted on 120 of cleaners in Kashan University of Medical Sciences. Data is collected using Persian Saint George Respiratory questionnaire and spirometery was performed once. Each spirogyra’s interpretation was based on the ATS criteria .The results analyzed using SPSS15 and chi square test and t test.

Results show that between 80 cleaners who had inclusion criteria, 36.3%(29 patients) had respiratory symptoms in the workplace .The prevalence of respiratory symptoms, including: Shortness of breath 22/5% (n = 18), cough, 18/8% (n = 15), sputum 6/3% (5 patients), and wheezing 2/5% (2 people).The most common view of Spirometry is normal and probably normal (79/7%). Contact with acids and bases increase risk of respiratory symptoms in cleaner(3/71 fold). Spirometery view in contact to detergents or acids and bases has no significant relation.

The research shows that a third of patients had respiratory symptoms, So it is required that in review the respiratory system of employers in addition to use spirometric interpretation, the results of clinical signs and respiratory complaints should be considered to diagnosis