Occupational health surveillance: Pulmonary function testing in emergency responders

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Pulmonary Medicine
• Environmental Health

Background:

• Emergency responders face occupational exposures to fumes, gases, and particulates.
• These exposures can potentially impair pulmonary function (PF), necessitating respiratory protection.
• Occupational health monitoring is crucial for assessing worker fitness and lung health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize pulmonary function (PF) in emergency responders.
• To compare the PF of emergency responders with the general population using spirometry data.
• To determine if employment as an emergency responder is associated with decreased PF.

Main Methods:

• Utilized occupational health monitoring examination data from emergency responders.
• Compared pulmonary function (PF) test results with the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III Raw Spirometry database.
• Conducted stratified analyses by age, gender, height, and smoking history.

Main Results:

• Emergency responders exhibited statistically significant increases in mean forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) compared to the NHANES III population.
• These findings held true in both total and stratified analyses.
• No evidence of decreased PF associated with emergency responder employment was found.

Conclusions:

• The observed enhanced PF in emergency responders is likely due to a combination of controlled workplace exposures and the healthy worker effect.
• Pulmonary function (PF) testing mandated by OSHA is a valuable tool for population-level occupational surveillance.
• This study demonstrates the utility of PF testing in identifying potential lung health issues in high-exposure industrial sectors.