Background: Occupational lung diseases are occurring at an increasingly significant level in India and the prevalence is particularly high in sawmill workers. The present study evaluated effects of sawdust on the lung functions of sawmill workers.Methods: In this prevalence study, 50 sawmill workers and equal number of age-sex matched controls were enrolled. Pulmonary function test parameters of all the participants were recorded by spirometry. Relevant comparisons were drawn between the groups.Results: Mean FVC of cases was 3.02±0.68 litres and of controls was 3.39±0.56 litres. Mean FEV1 of cases was 2.28±0.79 litres and of controls was 2.76±0.61 litres. Mean FEV1/FVC ratio of cases was 74.22±12.92% and of controls was 80.81±7.83. Mean PEFR of cases was 6.44±1.45 litres/second and of controls was 7.18±1.15 litres/second. Mean FEF 25-75 % of cases was 3.06±0.83 litres/second and of controls 3.53±0.71 litres/second. All the results were statistically significant (p<0.05).Conclusions: Sawmill workers are more vulnerable to respiratory impairment due to saw-dust exposure in the workplace environment. Efforts are recommended to control the levels of dust to within safe occupational limits.

Background: Transcendental meditation technique is purported to help treat high blood pressure, chronic pain, insomnia, and many other physical ailments. The present study was conducted to evaluate the impact of transcendental meditation on reaction time and cardiovascular parameters in young healthy volunteers.Methods: In this single centre, randomized, controlled study, 120 1st year M.B.B.S and OTPT students were recruited and put into two groups [control (60), experiment (60)]. Simple Auditory Reaction Time (ART) and Visual Reaction Time (VRT), along with Heart Rate (HR) and Blood Pressure (BP), of all subjects were recorded and compared. The experimental group participated in 16 weeks of TM programme and performed TM twice in a day, for 20 minutes, sitting comfortably with eyes closed and chanting OM. Control group were only made to sit with eyes closed during the same time. Keeping all the variables constant, all the parameters were measured again after 16 weeks.Results: There was significant reduction in all parameters (ART, VRT, HR, systolic BP and diastolic BP) in experimental group after 16 weeks of TM as compared to control group. ART was significantly shorter than VRT in both experimental and control groups and this difference was maintained after the intervention also.Conclusions: Transcendental meditation is an effective technique for reducing cardiovascular risk and can be prescribed to pre-hypertensive and hypertensive patients for stress reduction, along with medications for better results.