[The effect of wood dust on the respiratory system. Medical examination of furniture factory workers].

The medical-environmental questionnaire, physical examination and pre-shift and post-shift spirometry have been performed in 48 furniture factory workers. The workers showed the work-related symptoms: cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, headache, general malaise, skin symptoms, eye symptoms, rhinitis. No relationship was found between the spirometry values and the frequency of the symptoms. The exposed workers showed a significant post-shift reduction of the FVC, FEV1, FEV1%VC and PEF (p < 0.001). The higher drops of the spirometric parameters occurred in younger workers. The presented data show that processing of wood may be associated with the work-related respiratory symptoms and diseases in exposed workers.