With worldwide increases in production and consumption through the increasing population, occupational exposure is a substantial global health concern. Indeed, occupational disease is a major cause of disability and absence from work in the working population [1]. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 68–157 million new cases of occupational disease are attributed to hazardous exposures or workloads with more than 200,000 death, annually [2]. However, workers in low- and middle-income countries are more exposed to the work-related diseases. According to the Global Burden of Disease study conducted in 2010 (GBD 2010), occupational exposures are the ninth major cause of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in Iran [3]. The International Labor Organization has provided a list of occupational diseases, including diseases caused by biological, physical and chemical agents, respiratory disorders, skin diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, also mental and behavioral disorders, and occupational cancers [4]. Particularly, one-third occupational disease consisted of interstitial lung disease and respiratory cancers [5]. Although the impressive part of occupational lung diseases is not systematically recorded and the current statistics underestimates the true burden, up to 25% of all lung cancer deaths are attributed to causes of occupational exposure. In Iran, occupational exposure accounted for 13% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 11% of asthma and 9% of lung cancers [3]. A variety of acute and chronic pulmonary diseases are caused by inhaling hazardous chemical agents at the workplace. The exposure to dusts, vapors, immunological agents and microscopic airborne in the workplace are associated to occupational lung diseases [6].

In recent decades, using cleansing products has widely increased, partly due to environmental reasons. Manufacturing of these products has comprised the chemicals that continuously replaced by new ingredients to improve cleaning efficacy. Several methods are used to produce powder detergents, including spray drying, agglomeration, dry mixing, or combinations of these methods. The aim of these methods is the production of small droplets along with the generation of detergent dust and air pollution. Therefore, occupational respiratory diseases caused by proteolytic enzymes, surfactant, alkaline ingredients and bleaches are reported in the detergent industry. Moreover, the detergent powder manufacturing industry is associated with a risk of silica emission and its consequences. Silicosis as the most common occupational lung disease, is caused by continuous exposure to dust containing free silica [7].

The immediate hypersensitivity, asthma, and rhinitis are the most common occupational respiratory diseases of detergent workers [8, 9]. It is demonstrated that the risk of developing occupational asthma is related to the intensity of exposure to the causative agent and early detection can lead to appropriate prevention and treatment. To identify work-related respiratory disorders, after explaining biography and physical examination, various methods including chest x-ray, immunological studies, biomarker measurements, spirometry, etc. can be used. Spirometry is most applicable to discover the pulmonary impairment and also is one of the most important screening tools in pulmonary diseases [10]. Spirometry is the cornerstone of prevention and treatment of workplace-related lung disease, that is used to identify workers who should have further evaluation for possible disease [11]. Based on the important impacts of spirometry collected data for the occupational health specialist and health care physicians, the aim of this study was the evaluate spirometry parameters of detergent powder factory workers at Kondor industry, Semnan, Iran.