Respiratory function and immunological reactions in jute workers

✍ Scribed by Eugenija Zuskin; Bozica Kanceljak; Jadranka Mustajbegovic; E. Neil Schachter; Josipa Kern

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 575 KB
• Volume: 66
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0340-0131
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00386578

✦ Synopsis

A prospective study of respiratory function was performed in a group of 70 jute and 40 control workers. At the initial study there were consistently higher prevalences of all chronic respiratory symptoms in jute workers compared to control workers; however, the differences were statistically significant only for dyspnea (P < 0.05). At the follow-up study 19 out of the original 70 jute workers were examined 19 years later. There was a significant increase in the prevalence of almost all chronic respiratory symptoms among these workers. Similar across-shift reductions of forced vital capacity (FVC) and the 1-s forced expiratory volume (FEV1) were recorded on Monday and the following Thursday at the initial study. In the 19 jute workers followed prospectively there were similar across-shift reductions of FVC and FEV1 at the first and the follow-up study, the reduction being slightly larger for FEV1 than for FVC. Only one jute worker (5.3%) and two control workers (5.7%) responded to skin testing with specific textile extracts. Two workers developed symptoms of occupational asthma. One of these workers had a positive response to skin testing with jute extract. Our data suggest that exposure to jute dust may cause the development of chronic respiratory symptoms in some workers.