Revealing of pulmonary ventilation disturbances for failure eliminators at the Chernobyl atomic power station

Abstract

The function of external respiration was tested for a group of eliminators (103 persons) and a control group (52 persons). The indices monitored were as follows: a forced expiration volume during the first second, the forced vital capacity and the expiration peak volume rate. When comparing two groups for the same rate of the third index decrease the decrease of the two first indices was more frequent and the degree of the forced exspiration volume was significantly larger in the group of eliminators. An inhalation provokative test with 0.5 and 1 % metaholin solution was performed in order to reveal hyperreactivity. The test has shown out a tendency towards the hyperreactivity rate growth for the eliminators. Consequently the investigation has made it possible to determine high rate of disturbances in bronchial permeability and the bronchus hyperreactivity for those involved in the elimination of the consequences of the failure at the Chernobyl atomic power station.