Chest
Reactions During Work Shift Among Cotton Mill Workers
Section snippets
Exposure
The studies were made in a cotton mill in eastern Sweden. The cotton dust level was determined during two consecutive weeks by measuring the respirable dust level using vertical elutriators (VE).4 Dust measurements were made at three major work sites in the mill—carding, spinning, and winding.
On the Monday when the lung function measurements were made, each employee carried a personal sampler (Du Pont P-2500) equipped with a Casella cyclon during the work shift.
The amount of airborne endotoxin
RESULTS
Table 2 reports the levels of airborne respirable dust and endotoxin at the different work sites. The amounts of vertical elutriator dust and endotoxin were different at the three work sites with the highest value in carding and the lowest in winding. The amount of endotoxin per milligram of dust was about the same in carding and winding, but lower in spinning.
None of the workers had a baseline FEV1 which deviated 20 percent or more from the predicted normal values.6 A decrease ranging from 1
DISCUSSION
The study is based upon a limited number of subjects and conclusion should be drawn only with great care. It would have been desirable to assay all 25 workers who fullfilled the original requirements for the study but that was not possible for technical reasons. The study design involved a comparison of measurements on three different days before and after the shift on a material containing both reactors and nonreactors. There is no reason to believe that the persons who did not volunteer at
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Cited by (27)
A review of the use of CD14: A biomarker for workplace airborne endotoxin exposure?
2002, International Biodeterioration and BiodegradationEnvironmental endotoxin measurement: The Kinetic Limulus Assay with Resistant-parallel-line Estimation
1992, Environmental ResearchHistomorphometric study of the pulmonary response of guinea pigs to chronic cotton dust inhalation
1986, Toxicology and Applied PharmacologyNatural history and risk factors of early respiratory responses to exposure to cotton dust in newly exposed workers
2007, Journal of Occupational and Environmental MedicineRespiratory effects of bioaerosols: Exposure-response study among salmon-processing workers
2014, American Journal of Industrial Medicine
This study was supported by the Swedish Medical Research Council (B82-16x-03520-09) and Cotton Incorporated (agreement 77-342).
Manuscript received May 24, 1982; revision accepted January 5