Indolent Lung Destruction; Assessing the Risk of the Petrol Fuel Attendant in the Urbanized Area of the Southern Region of Nigeria

Background: health hazards remain a challenge globally and many workers know little or nothing about these deleterious challenges. The petrol fuel attendant is exposed to petrol fumes most times without adequate protection, this habit is often due to either ignorance or unregulated activities of the retail arm of the petrochemical industry. There is a possibility of increased risk for developing acute and chronic respiratory diseases in this group compared to those without this exposure, therefore this study seeks to access the risk associated with the progressive injury to the lung due to petrol fumes exposure.
Methodology: A community-based, cross-sectional, analytical study conducted over six months in an urban setting in Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State, South-South Nigeria with an area of 502 Km2 and a population of 127,718 as recorded in the March 2006 census. A DTspiro spirometer (Model POP-10. Serial no 110843-005) was used to accessed lung function in selected petrol pump attendants with their corresponding control group. Ethical approval was obtained from Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital Research and Ethics Committee with approval number ISTH/R&ETHICS/COM/83. Data analysis was done using the International Business Machines Statistical Product and Service Solutions (IBM- SPSS) version 22. The mean forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV1/FVC, forced vital capacity (PEFR) and forced expiratory flow (FEF25%-75%) were calculated and compared using the student’s t-test. The risk of developing lung function impairment following exposure to petrol fumes was assessed by calculating the odd ratio (OR) at 95% confidence interval using the binomial logistic regression.
Results: A significant reduction in mean Peak expiratory flow rate PEFR (P=0.001), forced vital capacity FVC (P=0.003), FEV1 (P=0.003), FEV1/FVC (P=0.036) and FEF25 - 75 (P=0.001) was observed in the study group compared to the control group. The lung function impairment in the study group was an obstructive and restrictive pattern with predominantly restrictive impairment accounting for 27.9% while the obstructive pattern was found in 8.6% while the control group also shows a predominantly restrictive pattern 8.6% and obstructive in only 2.9%. This difference was statistically significant with p= 0.001. A significant fourfold risk of development of lung function impairment when exposed to petrol fumes (OR = 4.44, p < 0.001 at Confidence Interval of 95%) was recorded.
Conclusion and recommendation: The study shows that continous exposure to petrol fumes as seen in petrol pump attendant resulted in significant reduction of their lung functions and increased risk of developing respiratory diseases. Therefore, awareness and use of personal protective equipment with regulation of the retail arm of the petroleum industry would be important to mitigate this dawdling cause of lungs injury.

lung destruction, petrol attendant, soot, safety, hydrocarbons, urbanization, southern, Nigeria.

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