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. 1990 Aug;47(8):524–527. doi: 10.1136/oem.47.8.524

Airway responsiveness of firefighters after smoke exposure.

K S Chia 1, J Jeyaratnam 1, T B Chan 1, T K Lim 1
PMCID: PMC1035224  PMID: 2393631

Abstract

Ventilatory function and airway reactivity of 20 firefighters were studied one hour before and one hour after exposure in a smoke chamber. None showed an increase in airway reactivity to inhaled histamine before exposure. Eight (80%) of the regular firefighters, however, had an increase in airway reactivity after exposure in the smoke chamber. After six hours, three of the firefighters still had increased airway reactivity. All were non-reactive after 24 hours but the ventilatory function of the three firefighters who were reactive after six hours did not return to baseline values. The duration of service as a firefighter is the major contributing factor to the change in airway reactivity. This increase in airway responsiveness among regular firefighters suggests that some form of chronic epithelial injury is needed before an increase in airway responsiveness is seen.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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