Exposure to Laundry Processes and its Effect on Lung Function among Laundry Workers: A Case-Control Study

Occupational lung diseases results from a prolonged exposure to irritants at the workplace. Laundry-workers get exposed to noxious particles during various laundry-processes such as washing, drycleaning, pressing clothes. Assessing their lung functions will help us in developing standard threshold of exposure levels to avoid development of chronic lung diseases.

To study the impact of long-term exposure to noxious particles such as (detergents, starch, volatile-organic compounds) on the lung functions of laundry-workers. It is first study on laundry-workers from Pune.

The study conducted in two clusters of laundry colonies of Pune city. We enrolled 98 male participants. Of them, 50 apparently healthy male launderers (exposed) and 48 age-matched participants(unexposed),residing at the same location. We collected socio-demographic information along with assessment of their respiratory-symptoms and lung function by using spirometry.

On average, participants were 46years old (range 25–70) with BMI 25.6(±12.4)kg/m². Two groups were comparable (p<0.05 for age, BMI).The average occupation duration of laundry-workers were 10.1(±6.9) years with work hours 9.0(±2.02)/day. About 32% laundry-workers and 19% non-laundry-workers were smokers. High proportion of laundry-workers 33(66%) had more respiratory symptoms(p=0.016),highly disturbed-sleep due to respiratory symptoms (p=0.021) compared to non-laundry workers. High proportion of laundry-workers 30(60%) showed abnormality (restriction/obstruction/small-airway disease) whereas only 19(39%) non-laundryworkers showed abnormal spirometry test (p=0.043).

The study will benefit in improving the lung function among laundry-workers.

Exposure to noxious particles related to laundry work significantly reduces the lung function and produces more respiratory-symptoms among the launderers as compared to the non-laundry-workers.