“Fill your lungs completely…and blast the air out! Keep blowing until I tell you to stop.” This coaching will sound familiar if you’ve ever performed a breathing test known as spirometry. Valid spirometry testing requires full participant effort and a carefully trained technician. Spirometry tests lung function by measuring how much and how hard a person can exhale after a maximum breath. It can detect reduction in lung function among workers. Workplace exposures to substances such as silica, cotton dust and coal can cause permanent lung damage. Monitoring respiratory function can help to assess the effectiveness of measures implemented to
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