Functional Diagnosis of Respiratory Efficiency of Cokery Mill Employees Working in a Polluted Atmosphere

Reaction of the airways to inhaled Berodual was evaluated in two groups of metallurgists surveilled by systematic, complex medical examinations for appx. 25 years: 31 coke oven and 31 cold-rolling mill workers. All subjects under examination were active smokers, smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day. The frequency of ventilatory disorders (central bronchi obturation, small bronchi obturation, and emphysemal changes) and the microclimatic conditions of their living places (even mean anthropometric indices) were similar. The main differentiating factor was the presence of air pollutants in their workshops. Employees of the coke oven division were exposed to a variety of noxious substances: CO, NOX, SO2, benzene (and its derivatives), HCN, and policyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In the cold rolling division concentration of air pollutions was much smaller and virtually devoid of BaP. As revealed by Berodual, the provocation test in coke oven workers irreversible obturation and fixed emphysemal changes were far more frequent than in workers of cold rolling mill performing their jobs in favorable microclimatic conditions.