RESPIRATORY-DISEASE IN COTTON TEXTILE WORKERS - EPIDEMIOLOGIC ASSESSMENT OF SMALL AIRWAY FUNCTION

We performed a cross-sectional study of 705 textile workers in two cot ton mills and one silk mill in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, t o assess small airway function among cotton textile workers and to com pare the FEV, to the FEF(25-75) in detecting airflow obstruction in th ese workers. All workers had at least 2 years of work experience. Envi ronmental sampling was performed with vertical elutriators and reveale d that in the cotton mills mean elutriated dust levels were 1.07 +/- 0 .23 mg/m(3) in mill 1 and 1.01 mg/m(3) +/- 2.4 mg/m(3) in mill 2. Mean endotoxin levels were 332 +/- 83 ng/m(3) in mill 1 and 101 +/- 46 ng/ m(3) in mill 2. No differences were found in preshift FEV(1) or FEF(25 -75) between cotton and silk workers. Cotton workers had significantly greater declines than silk workers in FEV, across a workshift, but no t in FEF(25-75). These acute changes in FEV, were noted in both byssin otic and nonbyssinotic workers. Although cotton dust may affect both l arge and small airways, spirometric measures of small airway function (e.g., FEF(25-75)) add little to the FEV, and FVC in detecting airflow limitation in cotton dust-exposed workers. (C) 1994 Academic Press, I nc.