testimony concerned the national institute for occupational safety and health (niosh) review of a study of pulmonary function data for knitting industry workers. pulmonary function data for 2287 workers from 12 knitwear and nine hosiery factories in north carolina were studied; and for a subset of 1396 workers from seven knitwear and seven hosiery factories. an index of exposure to cotton dust based on elutriated dust exposure indicated that there may have been a trend toward larger percent shift decrements in pulmonary function as dust index increased. the original study had concluded that there was no convincing evidence that the workers were subject to adverse health effects due to occupational exposure. years worked was not found to correlate with pulmonary function. based on an analysis of the study, niosh concludes that the researchers had no control over the selection of the factories studied and were not able to assess fully the representativeness of the study population. the methodology over which the researchers had control was properly applied, and the presentation of data was thorough and clear. it was possible that there may have been a dose response, but only a reevaluation of these subjects would clarify this. because the information on years worked was supplied by the factories, the accuracy of the information could not be determined. the facilities studies may not have been typical of knitwear and hosiery factories, so that the results could not be applied to the industry as a whole