DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/gjpas.v31i4.12 GLOBAL JOURNAL OF PURE AND APPLIED SCIENCES VOL. 31, 2025: 751-765 COPYRIGHT© BACHUDO SCIENCE CO. LTD PRINTED IN NIGERIA ISSN 1118 – 0579, e-ISSN: 2992 - 4464 www.globaljournalseries.com.ng, Email: globaljournalseries@gmail.com EVALUATION OF THE LUNG FUNCTION AND RELATED PARAMETERS AMONG CLOTHES/CLOTHING DEALERS IN CALABAR METROPOLIS, NIGERIA ARIBO, E.O., BEKEH, E.B. AND UTIONKPAN, L. P Email: ekpearibo@gmail.com (Received 13 February 2025; Revision Accepted 8 May 2025) ABSTRACT The clothes/clothing industry is a fast-growing business with increasing number of people engaged in the sales or distribution of its products. Most studies on pulmonary health following exposure to textiles have concentrated on workers in the factories/industries. Workers in these industries have been reported severally to have pulmonary function impairment and other pulmonary diseases. There is however paucity of information on the pulmonary function of traders involved in the sale of the textile products (clothings), hence this study. Lung function indices were evaluated in the standing position by spirometry on 132 male fabric dealers and same number of age-matched male controls. The results showed no significant differences in the ages and anthropometric parameters (height, weight, chest circumference, body mass index) between fabric dealers and control groups. Forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1), forced expiratory volume in one second expressed as a percentage of forced vital capacity (FEVI%), forced vital capacity (FVC) and peak expiratory flow were significantly (p<0.001) reduced in the test compared with the control subjects. There were no correlations between the lung function indices and duration in fabric sales. The concentrations of gases (carbon dioxide, oxygen, hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, formaldehyde and total volatile organic compounds) and particulate matter (PM 1.5, Pm 2.5 and Pm 10) in the ambient air of fabric shops and control sites were not significantly different. We therefore conclude that chronic exposure to fabrics could be associated with derangement in pulmonary function indices. KEYWORDS: Lung function indices, clothes/clothing, dealers INTRODUCTION Textile fabric is a material, woven, knitted, tufted or bonded together using natural or synthetic threads, yarns or other materials (Forstater, 2009). As an assortment of textiles, fabrics are used in the fashion industry to create various designs and uses. There are foundationally important in creating silhonette and aesthetics. Textile manufacturing is based on the conversion of fibres to yarns which are then converted to fabrics like wool, polyester, linen, nylon etc which are then fabricated into different products including home textiles and clothings, important in the clothes or apparel industry (Forstater, 2009; US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006). The global textile industry is a massive and growing market, valued at about one trillion dollars and projected to reach 1.5 Trillion Dollars by 2027 which is an indication of the significant market size for textile products worldwide (Royal Europe Textile, 2025). The industry is said to directly employ well over 60 million people (Forstater, 2019). Industrial production of textiles and exposure to chemicals used in the process and bye-products have long been known to have negative health effects including pulmonary dysfunction on textile workers (Christiani and Wang, 2001; Nagoda et al, 2012; Elshaer et al, 2023, MedlinePlus 2023; Ali et al, 2018). 751 Aribo, E. O., Department of Human Physiology, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria Bekeh, E. B., Department of Human Physiology, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria Utionkpan, L. P., Department of Human Physiology, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria © 2025 Bachudo Science Co. Ltd. This work is licensed under Creative Common Attribute 4.0 International license