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ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to investigate the potential effects of occupational exposures among fruit and vegetable market workers on the occurrence of respiratory symptoms and on the level of lung function parameters.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study of 140 men working as fruit and vegetable market workers (response rate 100%) and a reference group of 77 male office workers as the reference group (response rate 55%) from Shiraz, Iran. The outcomes of interest included occurrence of respiratory symptoms assessed by a standard respiratory questionnaire and lung function assessed by spirometry.ResultsIn Poisson regression analyses, the exposed group showed increased prevalence ratio (PR) of wheezing (adjusted PR 5.32, 95% CI 1.40 to 20.26), after controlling for confounding. Cough (PR 3.30, 95% CI 1.16 to 9.40) and wheezing (PR 9.40, 95% CI 2.28 to 38.64) showed increased PRs among vegetable distributors. Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and FEV1/forced vital capacity were significantly decreased among exposed workers after controlling for confounders. The absolute value of FEV1level was reduced significantly among fruit and vegetable carters (−0.99, 95% CI −1.68 to −0.32) and vegetable (−0.51, 95% CI −0.93 to −0.10) and fruit (−0.51, 95% CI −0.86 to −0.15) distributors in comparison with the reference group in the adjusted full model.ConclusionsThis study provides evidence that fruit and vegetable market workers are at an increased risk of respiratory symptoms and reduced lung function. Workplace conditions and safety training clearly need improvement, and there is a likely role for proper use of personal protective equipment.

BackgroundWe hypothesised that occupational exposures differently affect subtypes of adult-onset asthma.ObjectiveWe investigated potential relations between occupation and three subtypes of adult asthma, namely atopic asthma, non-atopic asthma and asthma–COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS).MethodsThis is a population-based case–control study of incident asthma among working-age adults living in Pirkanmaa Hospital District in Southern Finland. The determinant of interest was occupation at the time of diagnosis of asthma or the job that the subject had quit due to respiratory symptoms. Asthma was divided into three mutually exclusive subtypes on the basis of any positive IgE antibody (atopic and non-atopic asthma) and presence of persistent airways obstruction in spirometry (ACOS). We applied unconditional logistic regression analysis to estimate adjusted OR (aOR), taking into account gender, age and smoking.ResultsThe following occupational groups showed significantly increased risk of atopic asthma: chemical industry workers (aOR 15.76, 95% CI 2.64 to 94.12), bakers and food processors (aOR 4.69, 95% CI 1.18 to 18.69), waiters (aOR 4.67, 95% CI 1.40 to 15.56) and those unemployed (aOR 3.06, 95% CI 1.52 to 6.17). The following occupations showed clearly increased risk of non-atopic asthma: metal workers (aOR 8.37, 95% CI 3.77 to 18.59) and farmers and other agricultural workers (aOR 2.36, 95% CI 1.10 to 5.06). Some occupational groups showed statistically significantly increased OR of ACOS: electrical and electronic production workers (aOR 30.6, 95% CI 6.10 to 153.35), fur and leather workers (aOR 16.41, 95% CI 1.25 to 215.85) and those retired (aOR 5.55, 95% CI 1.63 to 18.97).ConclusionsOur results show that different occupations are associated with different subtypes of adult-onset asthma.