Pulmonary Function Response to Aerobic Exercise in Cotton Industry Workers

The common area of exposure to cotton dust in cotton industry are carding, blowing, spinning and weaving where maximum exposure to cotton dust faced by workers. They are more susceptible to various morbid conditions. Smoking with dust exposure leads to more severe impairments of byssinosis symptoms. Physical training plays an important role to improve pulmonary ventilation capacity, exercise capacity and decreased in dyspnea. So the purpose of this study was to find the effect of aerobic training on pulmonary function in smoker and non-smoker cotton industry worker.

66 cotton industry workers between the age group (30–55 years) were randomly selected and assigned into two groups; group-A smoker and group-B non-smoker received aerobic training for 4 times per week for 4 weeks. Pulmonary function test was used to measures outcome before and after a training program.

Pulmonary function was significantly (p<0.05) improved in group A while in group B improved significantly (p<0.05) except forced vital capacity and a ration of forced expiration in one second and forced vital capacity. Comparison between both groups, pulmonary function was statistically improved.

The results revealed that smoking had an impact on lung function in high cotton dust exposure. An aerobic training has more effect in smokers as compared to non-smokers on pulmonary function. Smoking was found to show an additive respiratory effect on cotton dust exposure.