The cooking process may emit toxic compounds and airway irritants from both the fuel combustion and cooking fumes which is harmful to the respiratory health among the restaurant workers. A cross-sectional study of 243 restaurant workers from the selected restaurants in Sungai Long, Malaysia was conducted. The standardized British Medical Research Council questionnaire on Respiratory Symptoms (1986) was used during the interview to access the symptoms and the spirometry test was performed to evaluate the pulmonary functions of the participants. The data of socio-demography and occupational characteristics were also collected. The most complaint respiratory symptoms by the restaurant workers were breathlessness, which accounted for 33.7%, followed by wheezing (14%). The mean values of all pulmonary function tests (PFT) of the restaurant workers were within the normal range (>80%), except for the Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF) (79.09%). The results of the bivariate statistical analysis, Chi-square, ANOVA and t-test, showed the determining factors of the respiratory health among the workers were workers’ age and gender in addition to the working duration and the ethnicity. The restaurant workers in Sungai Long were at risk of developing respiratory symptoms and lower pulmonary function values due to prolonged exposure to cooking fumes. Emphasis should be given to the safety and health of restaurant workers and health education should be provided to the restaurant workers and owners. Strategies to increase notification of such occurrences among these workers should be looked into by related agencies in the country.

INTRODUCTION: Chest radiographs (CXRs) are widely used for the screening and management of COVID-19. This article describes the radiographic features of COVID-19 based on an initial national cohort of patients. METHODS: This is a retrospective review of swab-positive patients with COVID-19 who were admitted to four different hospitals in Singapore between 22 January and 9 March 2020. Initial and follow-up CXRs were reviewed by three experienced radiologists to identify the predominant pattern and distribution of lung parenchymal abnormalities. RESULTS: In total, 347 CXRs of 96 patients were reviewed. Initial CXRs were abnormal in 41 (42.7%) out of 96 patients. The mean time from onset of symptoms to CXR abnormality was 5.3 ± 4.7 days. The predominant pattern of lung abnormality was ground-glass opacity on initial CXRs (51.2%) and consolidation on follow-up CXRs (51.0%). Multifocal bilateral abnormalities in mixed central and peripheral distribution were observed in 63.4% and 59.2% of abnormal initial and follow-up CXRs, respectively. The lower zones were involved in 90.2% of initial CXRs and 93.9% of follow-up CXRs. CONCLUSION In a cohort of swab-positive patients, including those identified from contact tracing, we found a lower incidence of CXR abnormalities than was previously reported. The most common pattern was ground-glass opacity or consolidation, but mixed central and peripheral involvement was more common than peripheral involvement alone.
COVID-19 ; Humans ; Lung/diagnostic imaging* ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Retrospective Studies ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Singapore