Research Paper
Year: 2020 | Month: July-September | Volume: 5 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 22-24
A Study on Pulmonary Function among Workers of Sugar Factory in Villupuram District- A Cross-Sectional Study
Saravanan C, Suhanya G, Sophia C
Department of Public Health, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, India.
Corresponding Author: Saravanan C
ABSTRACT
The organic dust of sugarcane contains high concentrations of bioaerosols such as bacteria, actinomycetes, and fungi of plant and animal origin cause pulmonary impairment among sugar factory workers.
Aim: 1)To find out the overall prevalence of pulmonary impairment of sugar factory workers.
Study Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 152 permanent sugar factory workers at the factory. Simple Random Sampling is used.
Materials and Method: A semi-structured questionnaire is used for collecting data and their medical history. The pulmonary function Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), FEV1 is the amount of air you can force from your lungs in one second. , FEV1/FVC %) was recorded by a portable computerized digital Spirometer. To access the effect of occupational exposure, the workers were divided into three groups based upon their experience i.e. 6-10 years, 11-15 years, and 16-20 years.
Results: The overall prevalence of pulmonary impairments was found to be 31.06%. Among impairments, 58.3% are restrictive 33.3% are obstructive and 8.3% are disease caused by mixed impairments. Among diseased 63% are non-smokers and 37% are smokers.
Conclusions: This study illustrated there is an association between years of experience and pulmonary impairment. The sugar factory workers have to know awareness about safety standards and measures like wearing Masks, Gloves while working, thereby reducing pulmonary impairments. By adopting modern innovative technologies by the management in the sugar factory, thus reducing pulmonary impairments is possible.
Keywords: Occupational Health, Pulmonary impairment, Health Promotion