Prevalence of Respiratory Disease in a Flax Mill in the United States

Abstract

Studies were made on 161 flax-mill workers at work by means of a questionnaire similar to that developed by the Medical Research Council and by means of simple pulmonary function tests. Air samples were obtained at various working sites. In this group of workers the effect of cigarette smoking as a factor in the production of chronic non-specific respiratory disease far outweighed the occupational exposures to dust or the effect of age in the males. There were insufficient diseased females for statistical analysis.