Assessment of vital respiratory indices of petrol pump workers of Kathmandu

Introduction: Petrol pump is a place where workers are exposed to both fuel vapor and the vehicular exhaust fumes. Automobile exhaust, a complex mixture of different gasses such as sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter, has an adverse impact on the respiratory system. The present cross-sectional study, therefore, has been designed to determine the few vital respiratory indices of petrol pump workers. Methods: Forty nonsmoker petrol pump workers and other forty participants, as a control group from the same locality, were considered in this study. All inclusion and exclusion criteria were followed. After participants were familiarized with spiro-excel (PC bases) spirometer, they were asked to perform maneuver – a forced expiratory following full inspiration – until they could duplicate the maneuvers successfully on three consecutive attempts. Parameters such as forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in the 1st s (FEV1), FEV1/FVC (%), peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), and forced expiratory flow at 25%–75% (FEF25%–75%) were recorded in sitting position preceded by 5-min rest, and the best values of three attempts were considered for data analysis using SPSS 16.0 version, and t-test (P < 0.05) was used for statistical analysis. Results: The mean ± standard deviation values of FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC (%), FEF25%–75%, and PEFR for petrol pump workers versus control groups were 3.44 ± 0.23 versus 3.94 ± 0.25 L, 2.64 ± 0.20 versus 3.24 ± 0.29 L, 77.11% ± 0.08% versus 82.61% ± 0.09%, 4.36 ± 0.37 versus 5.58 ± 0.36 L/s, and 6.35 ± 0.27 versus 7.62 ± 0.45 L/s, respectively. Conclusion: The significant decrease in FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC (%), FEF25%–75%, and PEFR in this study showed that long-term exposure to gasoline fumes/products leads to inflicted changes in lungs functions and could result to obstructive lung disease.