Spirometric Indices of Charcoal Smoke Exposed Food Grillers in Yenagoa South-South, Nigeria

Background: Pulmonary function is an important marker of the effects of air pollution on the exposed population. Mild to moderate reductions of FEV1/FVC, FEV1, FEV1%, PEF, and FEF25–75 have been associated with the exposure to biomass burning in cross-sectional studies. Some hospital-based case-control studies, confirm that people exposed to biomass smoke have high risk for developing airflow obstruction with significant reduction of FEV1 and FEV1/FVC. However, none of these studies has evaluated lung function parameters among charcoal smoke exposed food grillers. Therefore this index study took a look at spirometric indices among food grillers exposed to charcoal smoke in Yenagoa, South-South Nigeria. Methods: This was a comparative observational cross-sectional study of charcoal smoke exposed spirometric indices of food grillers compared to fruit sellers The Medical Research Council (MRC) Questionnaire was administered to participants and a “one-on-one” interview was conducted by the researcher using the questionnaires.Information obtained included socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, marital status and level of education. Spirometry was performed in accordance with the ATS/ERS using standard single reusable turbine spirometer (MIR Spirobank II Basic; manufactured by P & A Medical Limited).  Spirograms that met the ATS/ERS criteria for acceptability were used. Information obtained with the spirometer were FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC, PEF and FEF25-75. A portable HANA analogue weight machine was used to weigh the study participants and a flexible plastic tape measure was used to measure the heights of participants Results: A total of one hundred and sixty (160) participants made up of eighty (80) food-grillers and fruit-sellers (controls) respectively were recruited for this study. A normal lung function pattern was found in 60 (75.0%) of food-grillers and 72 (90.0%) of controls. This shows that more fruit-sellers had normal lung function pattern, and this was statistically significant (p = 0.013).  Obstructive pattern was found in 16 (20.0%) of food-grillers and 6 (7.5%) of controls (p = 0.022). The mean lung function values for food-grillers compared to fruit sellers were: FEV1=2.8±0.5L vs 3.2±0.5 (72.3±5.8% predicted); FVC=3.6±0.6L vs 3.9±0.8 (76.8±6.6% predicted), FEV1/FVC=78.5±4.9 vs 85.3 ±5.3 (77.1±5.4% predicted); PEF=5.7± 1.2L/s vs 6.9 ±2.9 (81.6±7.3% predicted) and FEF25-75=2.8±0.8L/s vs 3.0 (±0.4) (80.5±15.3% predicted).  The values were statistically different between food-grillers and controls (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Exposure to charcoal smoke is associated with the development of lung function abnormalities and reduction in lung function parameters. Increasing exposure time to charcoal smoke increase the likelihood of lung function abnormalities.