Abstract

Background: In India, around 20 million workers are involved in textile industry. With rapid industrialization of the developing world, cotton dust induced lung diseases are poised to become a global health problem. Aims &
Objective: To evaluate and compare the lung functions in subjects exposed to cotton dust with unexposed once (control groups) and to find out the correlation between duration of exposure with observed respiratory parameters.
Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted in the department of physiology at LLRM Medical College, Meerut with the help of SPIROLAB II (MIR) over a period of twelve months. A total of 100 individuals, 50 power loom workers and 50 controls were included in this study.
Results: The average FEV1/FVC ratio in loom workers was 79.63 ± 11.37, which was significantly lower (p