Original Research Paper

Breathing Life Of Traffic Police:a Close Look On Pulmonary Function Test Using Spirometry

Abstract :

Introduction: Air pollution due to automobile exhaust is increasing constantly over the ages.Traffic police personnels are highly vulnerable to the respiratory morbidities and mortality.8 In spite of the high vulnerability there are only few studies that have been done on them in Tumkur city. The present study was aimed at assessing the pulmonary function tests by using spirometry. Material and methods: This was a cross-sectional obsrevational study conducted in Tumkur city over a period of one year from July 2020 to Aug 2021.To evaluate the impairment of PFT values in 50 traffic police personnels. Pulmonary functional assessment was done using computarised software of spirometry. Results: Traffic personnel showed reduced lung volumes in the forced vital capacity(FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second(FEV1) and maximum voluntary ventilation(MVV)when compared with normal predictive values. FVC, FEV1, MVV showed statistically significant (p<0.05) reduction among the other parameters of PFT. Traffic personnel with longer duration of exposure showed significantly reduced lung volumes. Smokers did not show significant decrease(p<0.05)in lung function when compared to non-smokers.Conclusion: It is concluded that longer duration of exposure to automobile exhaust and absence of appropriate personal protective equipment like respirator masks during duty hours among the traffic police personnels leads to reduction in lung functions mainly restrictive type of lung impairment.

Cite This Article:

References :