Respiratory symptoms, lung function, and nasal cellularity in Indonesian wood workers: a dose-response analysis.

Objectives: It was hypothesised that inflammation plays a dominant part in the respiratory effects of exposure to wood dust. The purpose of this study was to relate the nasal inflammatory responses of workers exposed to meranti wood dust to (a) levels of exposure, (b) respiratory symptoms and (c) respiratory function.

Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in 1997 in a woodworking plant that used mainly meranti, among 982 workers exposed to different concentrations of wood dust.