Respiratory symptoms and lung function abnormalities related to work at a flavouring manufacturing facility.

Objectives: To better understand respiratory symptoms and lung function in flavouring manufacturing workers.

Methods: We offered a questionnaire and lung function testing to the current workforce of a flavouring manufacturing facility that had transitioned away from diacetyl and towards substitutes in recent years. We examined symptoms, spirometric parameters and diffusing capacity measurements by exposure variables, including facility tenure and time spent daily in production areas.

Exposures and cross-shift lung function declines in wildland firefighters.

Respiratory problems are common among wildland firefighters. However, there are few studies directly linking occupational exposures to respiratory effects in this population. Our objective was to characterize wildland fire fighting occupational exposures and assess their associations with cross-shift changes in lung function.

Vocal cord dysfunction related to water-damaged buildings.

Background: Vocal cord dysfunction (VCD) is the intermittent paradoxical adduction of the vocal cords during respiration, resulting in variable upper airway obstruction. Exposure to damp indoor environments is associated with adverse respiratory health outcomes, including asthma, but its role in the development of VCD is not well described.

Objective: We describe the spectrum of respiratory illness in occupants of 2 water-damaged office buildings.

Correcting diacetyl concentrations from air samples collected with NIOSH method 2557.

Diacetyl (2,3-butanedione), a diketone chemical used to impart a buttery taste in many flavoring mixtures, has been associated with bronchiolitis obliterans in several industrial settings. For workplace evaluations in 2000-2006, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) investigators used NIOSH Method 2557, a sampling and analytical method for airborne diacetyl utilizing carbon molecular sieve sorbent tubes. The method was subsequently suspected to progressively underestimate diacetyl concentrations with increasing sampling site humidity.

Particle size-dependent radical generation from wildland fire smoke.

Firefighting, along with construction, mining and agriculture, ranks among the most dangerous occupations. In addition, the work environment of firefighters is unlike that of any other occupation, not only because of the obvious physical hazards but also due to the respiratory and systemic health hazards of smoke inhalation resulting from combustion. A significant amount of research has been devoted to studying municipal firefighters; however, these studies may not be useful in wildland firefighter exposures, because the two work environments are so different.

Rayon flock: a new cause of respiratory morbidity in a card processing plant.

Background: Following employee respiratory concerns, we investigated the health effects of rayon flock exposure at a card manufacturing plant.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey including environmental evaluation, standardized questionnaires, spirometry, carbon monoxide diffusing capacity testing, and methacholine challenge testing.

Results: From a total of 239 participants, 146 (61%) reported working at least 1 hr per week in areas where flock-coated cards are processed (flock workers) and 47 (20%) reported cleaning equipment with compressed air.

Diacetyl emissions and airborne dust from butter flavorings used in microwave popcorn production.

In microwave popcorn workers, exposure to butter flavorings has been associated with fixed obstructive lung disease resembling bronchiolitis obliterans. Inhalation toxicology studies have shown severe respiratory effects in rats exposed to vapors from a paste butter flavoring, and to diacetyl, a diketone found in most butter flavorings. To gain a better understanding of worker exposures, we assessed diacetyl emissions and airborne dust levels from butter flavorings used by several microwave popcorn manufacturing companies.

Evaluation of flavorings-related lung disease risk at six microwave popcorn plants.

Objective: After investigating fixed airways obstruction in butter flavoring-exposed workers at a microwave popcorn plant, we sought to further characterize lung disease risk from airborne butter-flavoring chemicals.

Methods: We analyzed data from medical and environmental surveys at six microwave popcorn plants (including the index plant).

Results: Respiratory symptom and airways obstruction prevalences were higher in oil and flavorings mixers with longer work histories and in packaging-area workers near nonisolated tanks of oil and flavorings.

Characterization of respiratory exposures at a microwave popcorn plant with cases of bronchiolitis obliterans.

Eight former workers from a microwave popcorn packaging plant were reported to have severe obstructive lung disease consistent with bronchiolitis obliterans. Investigations into respiratory exposures at this plant were done during August through November of 2000. Samples were collected to assess airborne particulate concentrations, particle size distributions, endotoxins, oxides of nitrogen, organic gases and vapors, and other analytes.

Flock workers' exposures and respiratory symptoms in five plants.

Background: Sentinel cases of lymphocytic bronchiolitis in flock production and coating operations triggered a five-plant study of airborne respirable dust and fiber exposures and health symptoms.

Methods: Job histories from 219 current workers were linked to a job-exposure matrix derived from personal exposure measurements of respirable dust and fibers. Univariate group comparisons and multivariate modeling tested for relations between indices of cumulative and current exposure, and respiratory and systemic symptom outcomes.