Chest
Clinical Investigations: MiscellaneousSpirometric Impairments in Long-term Insulators: Relationships to Duration of Exposure, Smoking, and Radiographic Abnormalities
Section snippets
Population
All surviving active and retired members of the International Brotherhood of Heat, Frost and Asbestos Insulation Workers who had been in the union on January 1, 1967, enrolled in the initial survey5 and now were at least 30 years from onset of occupational exposure were invited to participate. Approximately 55 percent of the surviving cohort were examined in 19 cities in the United States and Canada during the years 1981 to 1983. A sufficient number with lesser duration from onset of exposure
Mean Values
Table 2 shows mean demographic, exposure, and pulmonary function variables by smoking category. Of the 2,611 men, 2,096 (80 percent) had SM. The majority (56 percent) of these or 1,221 men (47 percent of the total population studied) were XS, while 875 (34 percent of the total) continued to smoke. By comparison, in the authors’ random survey of the population of the state of Michigan (from which the spirometric predictive equations were derived), done 4 years earlier, 69 percent of the men had
Discussion
The 2,611 long-term asbestos insulators are a large group, allowing analysis of the effects on spirometric lung function of such independent variables as asbestos exposure (expressed as years from onset), cigarette smoking (expressed as pack years), and presence of radiographic abnormalities. Spirometry is the most easily and universally measured set of lung function tests. The FVC measures “ventilable” lung volume; a decrease therefore reflects (1) restriction secondary to pulmonary or pleural
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Supported in part by NIEHS Center grant ES 00928.