Reactions During Work Shift Among Cotton Mill Workers

doi:10.1378/chest.84.4.403

Chest

Volume 84, Issue 4, October 1983, Pages 403-407

https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.84.4.403 Get rights and content

Lung function and blood neutrophils were measured in 13 cotton mill workers on different days of the work week. Antigen was prepared from cotton dust and a radioallergosorbent (RAST) test made on serum and plasma. The exposure was determined as airborne dust and bacterial endotoxin using vertical elutriators and personal samplers. Reductions in FEV₁ and increased blood neutrophils were found on Mondays at an exposure level of 0.32 to 0.48 mg respirable dust/m³ and 0.19 to 0.28 ?g endotoxin/m³. The changes in blood neutrophils correlated with endotoxin levels. The FEV₁ decreases were present on Monday but not on Wednesday and Friday. The RAST ratios were low and not correlated with FEV₁. No systematic changes in RAST ratios were present over the Monday shift. The results suggest that the importance of immunologic reactions other than type 1 should be investigated.

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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A review of the use of CD14: A biomarker for workplace airborne endotoxin exposure?
2002, International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation
Occupational exposure to endotoxin, a component of Gram-negative bacteria, causes short-term illness and contributes to long-term illness. There are currently no recognised objective markers of endotoxin exposure. Such a biomarker could be used to distinguish between symptoms caused by inhaled endotoxin or by other contaminants of organic aerosols and to demonstrate a cause and effect relationship between endotoxin exposure and impairment of respiratory function. Flow cytometry has been used to measure CD14, an endotoxin receptor on monocytes, which may be a useful biomarker of endotoxin exposure. An in vitro model was developed, CD14 expression on monocytes was significantly upregulated in response to endotoxin. In cotton dust workers exposed to 1– $400 EU / m^{3}$ air, CD14 expression significantly increased after $6 h$ and at $72 h$ levels had fallen to baseline or lower. We propose that CD14 expression on monocytes may be used to monitor workers exposure to endotoxin.
Environmental endotoxin measurement: The Kinetic Limulus Assay with Resistant-parallel-line Estimation
1992, Environmental Research
A Limulus assay method was specifically designed for environmental endotoxin aerosols. Application of new statistical and sample preparation methods strengthened the validity and precision of the Limulus test. Statistically, the Kinetic Limulus Assay with Resistant-parallel-line Estimation (KLARE) differed from conventional analytic methods (as used in chromogenic assays and other kinetic methods) by routinely using a dilution series of the unknown sample as well as the standard to compute potency and an estimate of variance for each sample. Analysis of dose-response slopes for the standard and unknowns detected inhibition and enhancement effects—without multiple assay. Concentration-dependent interference and a more complex, concentration-independent interference with the Limulus assay were detected. Resistant regression and a standardized data analysis corrected for concentration-dependent interference. Sample preparation in a buffer eliminated concentration-independent interference and, thus, improved both the validity and the precision of potency measurements. The utility of a sample buffer and of parallel-line analysis, with both turbidimetric and chromogenic lysates, was demonstrated by assay of three control standard LPS and reference LPS (EC5). The limit of detection for endotoxin was <1 pg/ml in buffer. Samples containing ⩾10 pg/ml were measured with a coefficient of variation of approximately 6% in a single assay. Reproducibility of potency estimates for four samples over 3 days was compared on the basis of standard errors of the mean. The conventional method gave on average a CV of 65% while the resistant-parallel-line method gave, on average, a CV of 6%. Also, the conventional method failed to detect interference and, thus, included data from invalid assays. Conventional analysis of environmental aerosol samples was highly sensitive to the choice of dilution factor causing as much as 1000% variation in the result. By contrast, KLARE results changed by at most 30% with similar changes in initial dilution because KLARE was able to detect, and correct for, the influence of interferant compounds.
Histomorphometric study of the pulmonary response of guinea pigs to chronic cotton dust inhalation
1986, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology
In this study we describe, through stereological methods, the lung morphology following inhalation exposure of guinea pigs to 21 mg/m³ cotton dust (CD) for 1 year. Various stereological parameters were determined on semithin histological sections, through a multistage sampling approach, to study the reaction of the whole lung, alveolar parenchyma, and bronchioles to CD inhalation. After 1 year of exposure, the lung volume was increased. Two distinct patterns of lung response were identified among the exposed animals. In type I responders, most of the morphometric parameters measured to describe the alveolar parenchymal reaction were within control value limits $x ± 2 SD$ ). In type II responders, the volume density (V_v) of the parenchymal zone was decreased, while the V_v, mean thickness, and absolute volume of the alveolar septa were increased. These changes caused the surface density (S_v) of alveolar epithelium to decrease, and an estimate of the percentage of alveolar septa remaining functional for gas exchange was also significantly lowered in these animals. In both types of responders, fifth to ninth orders of bronchioles had a raised wall to lumen ratio; the V_v and mean thickness of the bronchiolar epithelium were markedly increased, denoting hyperplastic changes. Thus, chronic exposure to cotton dust induced definite morphological changes on the peripheral conducting airways in most of the exposed animals, and induced pronounced changes at the alveolar level in 8 of 17 CD-exposed guinea pigs.
Natural history and risk factors of early respiratory responses to exposure to cotton dust in newly exposed workers
2007, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
A prospective study of newly exposed cotton workers was performed to investigate the natural history of respiratory symptoms and lung function changes.
A total of 157 workers naive to cotton dust exposure were investigated by questionnaire, spirometry, and skin tests. They were examined before employment (baseline) and at the end of the first week, and the first, third, sixth, and 12th month after starting work. Acute airway response was defined as either a cross-first-shift or a cross-week fall in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). The longitudinal change of lung function over the year was also calculated. Five hundred seventy-two personal dust sampling and 191 endotoxin measurements were performed to assess the exposure.
Forty percent of workers reported work-related symptoms in the first week of the study. Smoking, endotoxin, and dust concentrations were risk factors for all work-related symptoms. Acute airway responses were witnessed after immediate exposure. Female status was the only factor found to be predictive of acute airway response. The mean longitudinal fall in FEV1 at 1 year was 65.5 mL (standard error = 37.2). Age, early respiratory symptoms, and early fall in cross-week FEV1 were found to predict the 12-month fall in FEV1. Cross-first-shift and cross-week falls in FEV1 reduced in magnitude during the course of the study.
This study of workers naive to cotton dust exposure has demonstrated that respiratory symptoms and acute airway responses develop early following first exposure, and a tolerance effect develops in those workers with the continued exposure. Current smoking and increasing exposure predicts the development of work-related lower respiratory tract symptoms, while early symptoms and acute airway changes across the working week predict the longitudinal loss of lung function at 1 year.
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2014, American Journal of Industrial Medicine
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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

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Chest

Reactions During Work Shift Among Cotton Mill Workers

Section snippets

Exposure

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

Lancet

Environ Res

Prevalence of byssinosis in Swedish cotton mills

Br J Ind Med

An epidemiological study of byssinosis among Lancashire cotton workers

Br J Ind Med

Interaction of atopy and exposure to cotton dust in the bronchoconstrictor response

Br J Ind Med

Cotton dust sampling II-vertical elutriation

Am Ind Hyg Assoc J

Investigations on the specificity of the Limulus test for the detection of endotoxin

Appl Microbiol

Spirometric studies in normal subjects

Acta Med Scand