Abstract

Background: Stone quarry workers form a unorganized sector of industry scattered all over India. Due to these workers employed at the granite factory are exposed to different components of dust in which silica is the major one. Longer the duration of exposure to silica dust the respiratory impairment increases. High degree of respiratory morbidity is associated with this industry as people lack the knowledge about the harmful effects of the dust on their health and also negligence from the management side who fail to do periodic health checkup of the employees. Aims and Objectives: The present study was designed to evaluate the pulmonary function tests in the granite factory workers based on the duration of exposure.
Materials and Methods: The study population consists of 100 asymptomatic granite workers aged between 18 and 40 years working in granite rock factory for more than 5 years’ duration. Workers were divided into two groups based on the duration of exposure. Workers who were exposed for >5 years but <10 years belong to Group 1, and those workers who were exposed for more than 10 years belong to Group 2. Pulmonary function testing was done using Medspiror, which is a PC-based spirometer with flow transducer in all the subjects.
Results: Data analyzed among these two group of workers reported a significant st decrease forced expiratory volume in the 1 s (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV1/FVC, peak expiratory flow rate, and mean forced expiratory flow 25–75% in Group 2 workers than Group 1. Conclusion: Thus, the present study shows that as the number of years of the working period increases among granite workers the impairment of pulmonary functions increases.