Survey of spirometric indeces and prevalence of respiratory symptoms in a pipe mills workers

Respiratory disorders are common medical problems among workers. Spirometry is the most important and available technique for pulmonary function test. In this research, basic pulmonary function indeces and prevalence of respiratory symptoms were investigated among the workers of a pipe mills. In this analytical case – control study, 70 pipe mills workers that have been exposed to the respiratory pollutants and 50 official staffs of a company were examined by interview, questionnaire and spirometry tests. Spirometry was performed according to the American thoracic society standards. Data was saved and analyzed by T-test in SPSS software. Difference between case and control groups from the viewpoints of age, height, weight and smoking was not significant. Prevalence of dyspnea, chest thightness, repeated cough, sputum and wheezing in the workers that have been exposed to the respiratory pollutants were significantly more than nonexposed workers (P< 0.05). Difference of averages of Forced Vitalcapacity (FVC) and forced expiratiory volume (FEV1) in spirometry between two groups was significant, however, FEV1 / FVC wasn,t significant. 4% of controls and 28.5% of cases had restrictive patterns. The results of this study exlpain no significant difference in the respiratory symptoms and spirometric indeces between pipe mills workers and the control group and the similarity of effectiveness or confounding agent in the two groups. Therefore, it is concluded that the appearing respiratory symptoms and reducing of pulmonary function in the pipe mills workers have been due to the exposuring of them to the respirable pollutants in the workplace.