Pleural plaques and respiratory function.

This cross-sectional study was comprised of 202 nonsmoking shipyard workers with varying exposures to asbestos. Their chest X-rays were normal or contained no abnormality other than pleural plaques. They participated in a health examination of workers exposed to asbestos, which comprised a total of 3,904 persons. One hundred and fifteen of the 202 workers had no deviations from normal X-rays, and 87 had pleural plaques but no other finding on their X-rays. Three out of the 115 workers with normal X-rays and 13 of the 87 with pleural plaques had FVCs below the reference limits (p less than 0.005). The workers with plaques had an average of 6.9% lower FVC. Even after stratification for asbestos exposure, men with plaques were found to have lower FVCs than men without plaques. This difference was largest for those with heavy exposure to asbestos.