Evaluation of the respiratory symptoms and pulmonary function tests capacities in Yazd tile workers

Tile workers are exposed to a lot of dusts and are susceptible to various pulmonary complications. This study was designed to evaluate the respiratory symptoms and lung capacities of tile workers. This was a retrospective, cross sectional study on 350 workers in different factory workshops. We assessed respiratory complaints and pulmonary function tests. Data were analyzed by SPSS using T-Test and ANOVA. Among respiratory complaint, dyspnea was the most frequent(22.9%), and cough(13.1%) and sputum production(5.4%) were in the 2nd and 3rd orders. There was a significant relationship between dyspnea and reduction in spirometric indices(P< 0.05),and there was a significant relationship between respiratory complaint and job title, frequency of respiratory symptoms were higher among foundry workers. It is clear that occupational exposures affect pulmonary function, performing pulmonary function tests may show lung term effect of these exposures.