Respiratory health effects associated with restoration work in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.

Background: This study examines prevalence of respiratory conditions in New Orleans-area restoration workers after Hurricane Katrina.

Methods: Between 2007 and 2010, spirometry and respiratory health and occupational questionnaire were administered to 791 New Orleans-area adults who mostly worked in the building construction and maintenance trades or custodial services. The associations between restoration work hours and lung function and prevalence of respiratory symptoms were examined by multiple linear regression, χ², or multiple logistic regression.

Lung function, radiological changes and exposure: analysis of ATSDR data from Libby, MT, USA.

In 2000, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR; Atlanta, GA, USA) investigated lung disease in those exposed to the tremolite-contaminated vermiculite mine in Libby, MT, USA. Previously unreported spirometric results are presented here in relation to exposure and radiographic findings. 4,524 study participants were assigned to one of seven mutually exclusive exposure categories.

Longitudinal respiratory health study of the wood processing industry.

Background: A 5-year longitudinal study examined nonmalignant respiratory effects of wood processing dust exposure.

Methods: Ten study plants, investigator selected from 447 candidate plants, included 1 sawmill-planing-plywood, 1 plywood, 1 milling, 3 cabinet and 4 furniture facilities. Personal dust samples (2363) were divided into three size fractions (extrathoracic, tracheobronchial, and respirable) which were apportioned into wood solids (WS) and residual particulate matter (RPM), and used to compute each individuals TWA exposure for the 6 exposure types.

The precision of longitudinal lung function measurements: monitoring and interpretation.

Background: The efficacy of decision making based on longitudinal spirometric measurements depends critically on the precision of the available data, which is determined by the magnitude of the within-person variation.

Aims: Firstly, to describe and investigate two statistical methods-a pairwise estimate of within-person standard deviation s(p) and the reliability coefficient G-for use in the monitoring of precision of longitudinal measurements of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). Secondly, to investigate the effect of longitudinal data precision on the detectable excess rate of decline in FEV1.