Bronchial responsiveness in hops processing workers

: In small group of workers (n = 17) who had been during their working process (storing and packing of hop) exposed to the inhalation of hop dust, the bronchial responsiveness with metacholine was studied according to cumulative method. Although 70% of examined subjects had clinically pronounced signs of bronchial irritation and 50% of them the signs of chronic bronchitis, the moderately increased bronchial responsiveness was found in only 12.5% of examined subjects (n = 2) which is--due to the data from the literature--the normal percent for healthy population.