Assessment of Respiratory Problems among Vendors of Liquefied Petroleum Gas

The study is aimed at identifying which of the respiratory symptoms (wheeze, cough, chest tightness and nasal irritation/sneezing) significantly affect(s) the vendors of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), and appraising the effect of chronic exposure to LPG on pulmonary function (forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), ratio of FEV1 and FVC (FEV1/ FVC), and peak expiratory flow (PEF)) on vendors of LPG in Calabar, Nigeria. It was found that nasal irritation/sneezing and cough were significantly associated with the LPG vendors. the pulmonary function indices except FEV1/ FVC showed significant reduction among LPG vendors. A case control design in which vendors and non-vendors of LPG were used for the study. The sizes of cylinders refilled ranged from 4kg to 50kg. The amount sold per participant each day was obtained from their record books over the period of two weeks. The average of this was 755kg and was taken to indirectly represent the daily LPG exposure since we were not able to directly determine the amount of LPG escaping into the ambient air. A total of 150 subjects were recruited which consist of seventy five (75) apparently healthy LPG (cooking gas) vendors and seventy five (75) apparently healthy non gas vendors /users (control). The inclusion criteria for the exposed group were: residence in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria; age ranging from 18 to 50 years, having at least one year exposure to LPG and selling for at least 6 hours daily, and devoid of respiratory diseases history before commencing the trade. The inclusion criteria for the control were: residence in Calabar, age ranging from 18 to 50 years, apparently healthy, no work-related exposure to LPG and devoid of history of hospitalization due to respiratory diseases. The purpose and nature of the research was explained to the participants and written consent was obtained.

本研究旨在识别哪些呼吸道症状（喘息、咳嗽、胸部紧缩以及鼻部刺激/打喷嚏）对液化石油气（LPG）销售商产生显著影响，并评估长期暴露于LPG对卡巴拉，尼日利亚的LPG销售商肺功能（第一秒用力呼气量（FEV1）、用力肺活量（FVC）、FEV1与FVC之比（FEV1/FVC）和峰值呼气流量（PEF））的影响。研究发现，鼻部刺激/打喷嚏和咳嗽与LPG销售商显著相关。除了FEV1/FVC外，肺功能指标在LPG销售商中均显示出显著的降低。研究采用病例对照设计，研究对象包括LPG销售商和非LPG销售商。气瓶的充装量介于4kg至50kg之间。每位参与者每天销售的量通过其记录册在两周期间内获得，平均值为755kg，以此间接代表每日的LPG暴露量，因为我们无法直接确定逸入环境空气中的LPG量。共招募了150名受试者，其中包括75名看似健康的LPG（煤气）销售商和75名看似健康的非燃气销售商/用户（对照组）。暴露组的纳入标准为：居住在尼日利亚的卡巴拉，克罗斯河州；年龄介于18至50岁之间，至少有一年的LPG暴露史，且每天至少销售6小时，且在开始贸易前无呼吸道疾病史。对照组的纳入标准为：居住在卡巴拉，年龄介于18至50岁之间，看似健康，无与工作相关的LPG暴露史，且无因呼吸道疾病住院史。研究的目的和性质已向参与者解释，并获得了书面同意。