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Intensive livestock housing: a review
Published in Thomas Banhazi, Andres Aland, Jörg Hartung, Air Quality and Livestock Farming, 2018
Chronic lower airways effects manifest as chronic bronchitis with or without obstruction and are experienced by 25% of all swine ILH workers. This is the most commonly defined health problem of this occupational group and is suffered two to three times more frequently compared to farmers who work in conventional (more open and pastured) swine housing units or in agricultural operations other than swine or poultry production (Donham, 1990). Symptoms are similar to bronchitis from other chronic lower level exposures, but they are perhaps more common and severe. Symptoms include chronic cough, with excess production of phlegm and sometimes chronic wheezing and chest tightness. Smokers experience a higher prevalence and severity of chronic bronchitis than non-smokers. Most workers removed from the ILH environment become asymptomatic (in the absence of smoking) within a few months, but bronchitis symptoms in some workers can persist for years.
Investigation of symptoms and lung functions in tea packaging factory employees
Published in Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health, 2023
Lamiye Yıldız, Fatih Mehmet Gokce, Sinan Saral
Organic dust exposure in the workplace causes respiratory diseases such as asthma, allergic alveolitis, chronic bronchitis, organic dust toxic syndrome, and interstitial lung disorders. Sometimes these and similar respiratory pathologies lead to a complex presentation with mixed signs of airway irritation or inflammation.13 During the refining and packaging of tea, a powder consisting of tea fluff, broken tea leaves, particles of inorganic matter, and traces of silica is formed. There are reports that this material is both irritating and sensitizing. Occupational respiratory diseases caused by inhalation of this dust formed during tea production were first reported as “tea factory cough” by Castellani and Chalmers.6 In the following years, occupational asthma in a tea factory worker was shown as “tea maker’s asthma” by Uragado.2 Various surveys of tea workers have been reported. A very high prevalence of chronic bronchitis and asthma emerged according to these survey studies.3 Inhalation of tea powder is known to cause both acute and chronic respiratory symptoms. Acute symptoms are a burning sensation in the throat, runny and bleeding nose, eye irritation, and headache.4,5 Chronic symptoms include byssinosis, chronic cough, sputum, and dyspnea.3,4
World Trade Center Health Program best practices for diagnosing and treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Published in Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health, 2023
James E. Cone, Rafael E. de la Hoz
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) was, in 2019, the 3rd leading cause of death worldwide.1 The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD), a collaboration between the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization has defined COPD as persistent airflow limitation.2 It is usually progressive and associated with an enhanced chronic inflammatory response in the airways and the lung to noxious particles or gases. In the past, it was often associated with a history of cigarette smoking but is now recognized by the GOLD guideline as being significantly associated with indoor and outdoor air pollution and occupational toxicant exposures. The three key symptoms of COPD include shortness of breath, chronic cough, and production of sputum. However, note that spirometry with bronchodilator response testing is presently required for a COPD diagnosis.
Respiratory symptoms and lung functional impairments associated with occupational exposure to poultry house pollutants
Published in International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2021
Masoud Neghab, Ali Ebrahimi, Esmaeel Soleimani
The European community respiratory health survey (ECRHS) questionnaire [22] was used to assess the respiratory symptoms among the studied subjects. The ECRHS questionnaire collects data on demographic and occupational variables as well as respiratory symptoms, including wheezing, shortness of breath, asthma, chest tightness, cough, phlegm, chronic bronchitis and chronic cough. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire have been determined previously [7]. The parameters of pulmonary function were measured, by portable calibrated spirometer (Spirobank II; MIR, Italy) according to the American Thoracic Society (ATS) guideline [23], twice for the poultry workers: (a) on the first working day of the week (Saturday, post-shift) following 8 h of exposure (acute response); (b) following a 48-h exposure-free period (prior to the first shift of the first working day of the week) (pre-shift, baseline values). Spirometry was performed once for the referent employees.