Effect of Chronic Exposure of Sawdust in Workers Employed in Sawmills: A Cross-Sectional Study

Increase in industrialization as well as sophisticated life style is leading to increased indoor air pollution causing major health problems in our developing country, India. Chronic exposure to saw dust affects the worker’s lung functions and stimulates allergic responses. Present study is designed to investigate the effects of saw dust on the lung functions as it puts the workers’ health into jeopardy. Spirometry is a readily available tool to detect lung function abnormalities at an early stage. The aim was to study and compare the effects of saw dust on pulmonary functions of nonsmoking male saw mill workers with those of healthy subjects unexposed to saw dust. 50 adult non-smoking male workers from saw mills were selected for our study. 50 age and sex matched healthy subjects unexposed to such an occupational hazard were taken as controls. Forced expiratory spirograms were recorded by RMS medspiror. Parameters such as forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1st second (FEV1), the ratio of FEV1/FVC, forced expiratory flow in the middle half of FVC (FEF25-75%), peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) and maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV) were assessed in both cases and controls. The results were analyzed by using the student’s unpaired ttest. Saw mill workers showed greater decline in FVC, FEV1, FEF25-75%, PEFR, MVV and FEV1/FVC ratio which is statistically highly significant, suggesting obstructive pulmonary disorder.