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has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: Could Sputum Eosinophilia Act as a Predictive Test for Diagnosis of High Risk Bakery Workers to Asthma?

  AUTHORS: Omid Giahi, Mehrzad Ebrahemzadih, Jamshid Khoubi

  KEYWORDS: Bakery Workers, Hyper-Responsiveness, Pulmonary Function Tests, Sputum Eosinophilia, Wheat Flour

  JOURNAL NAME: Health, Vol.7 No.1, January 20, 2015

  ABSTRACT: Background: Occupational flour inhalation has been a culprit in the start of several pulmonary diseases such as asthma. We examined the relationship between occupational wheat flour inhalation in bakery and supermarket employees with pulmonary functions, respiratory symptoms, and sputum eosinophilia to determine hyper-responsiveness in a cross-sectional study in Iran. Methods: 122 subjects from traditional bakeries and 137 subjects from supermarket employees were enrolled in the study. Flour exposure concentrations, respiratory signs, sputum analysis, and respiratory volumes and capacities were measured based on the standard methods. Results: Respirable concentration of flour in the bakery workers was two- to four-fold of ACGIH’s threshold limit value in which bread-bakers with 2.2 mg/m3 experienced maximum exposures. The supermarket employees were not exposed to flour dust. The respiratory volumes in both bakery and supermarket employees were in the normal range. However, the median of voluminal percentage in bakery workers except Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) decreased (p p