Introduction It has been established that environmental exposure due to residence in the vicinity of factories where asbestos use is associated with the risk of lung disorders.

Objective To relate the history of environmental exposure to asbestos, with spirometric values of an adult population of the community of San Pedro Barrientos, Tlalnepantla in the state of Mexico.

Material and methods A spirometry accompanied by a questionnaire of occupational and environmental exposure to a sample of 123 adult inhabitants, who had a history of having lived in the community for at least a year in the period was performed, and respiratory symptoms ranging from 1943–1998, during which time he was one of the active processing plants nation’s largest asbestos.

Results The equations that best adjusted to calculate the predicted values in the study population, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were the NHANESIII study of Mexico-American population (June, 2001).

A negative correlation between years of residence in the community found Barrientos, with the percentage obtained in the FEV1/FVC, FVC and FEV1 with a value of −0.05,–0.16 and −0.22 respectively. Which is an indicator of the tendency to have lower percentages in spirometric values increased residence time in the community.

Conclusions Given that spirometry is the most accessible to evaluate mechanical ventilation test, and is useful for the diagnosis and monitoring of various diseases, efforts should be made to make it available and perform as recommended standardisation in order to have acceptable and reproducible manoeuvres. It is important to note the trend of the results, which indicate that the longer the exposure subjects had lower percentages predicted spirometry values (adjusted for sex, age and height).

The result of this research supports the recommendations issued by the United Nations (UN) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which states that there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos and should promote the elimination of Use in whatever form and materials containing.

We recommend further studies extension to the population and evaluated the study spirometry to identify any histopathological damage by environmental exposure to asbestos, as well as make the surrounding population studies that community spirometry.