CORRELATION OF RESPIRATORY SYMPTOMS AND LUNG FUNCTION STUDY DATA IN RAILWAY WORKERS

Abstract

The examination of 1933 men aged 18 to 60 was done for the purpose of studying respiratory symptoms prevalence among railway transportation workers. The main group consisted of 1038 people working in hazardous conditions for more than a year, and the group of comparison involved 895 people without occupational hazards in the form of dust pollutants. The respondents were interviewed by the main questionnaire «Burden of major Respiratory Diseases WHO Survey»; the intensity of smoking was identified by the index of packs/years; the study of lung function (LF) was carried out with the spirometry. It was found out that among the men who were exposed to industrial aerosols there was a big number of people with respiratory complaints: 21.5% was among the respondents working in hazardous conditions, and 14.5% was from the group of comparison. The men who work in the dust pollution smoke more than the men without professional risk factors. The frequency of respiratory symptoms increases proportionally the intensity of smoking. The absence of respiratory complaints does not exclude the presence of pathological changes in the spirogram in the study of LF. Approximately identical frequency of LF pathological changes can be observed both among men working in harmful conditions and men who do not have professional risk factors. Smoking has a more significant impact on the development of chronic bronchopulmonary diseases in workers of railway transportation than the inhalation of industrial aerosols. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among railway transportation workers is more often diagnosed in men exposed to occupational hazards such as welding fumes than in men working in other occupational hazards.