Analysis of dust samples from urban and rural occupational environments in Croatia.

This study estimated the exposure to dust mites in various occupational environments in Croatia. In total, 29 occupational dust samples were collected: 10 from urban areas (offices, archive of an insurance company, tobacco, paper-recycling, fish-processing and textile plants, animal unit for experimental rats, winery), nine from rural areas (barley, hay, animal food and flour warehouses, tailor's shops, wood processing plant, swine confinement house, grocer's storeroom), and 10 samples from cabins of five fishing boats (five floor and five bed samples). Mites were microscopically identified, and the levels of Der p 1, Der f 1, and Der 2 allergens measured using the DUSTSCREEN test (Heska AG, Switzerland).

[Exposure and allergy to dust mites in general and working environment in Croatia].

This paper gives a review of the most important impacts of exposure to dust mites in general and working environment on human health. The Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health in Zagreb, Croatia, has been investigating the frequency and exposure levels of allergies to pyroglyphid and non-pyroglyphid mites in Croatia for the last 10 years. Investigations were performed in general urban and rural population from the inland and coastal Croatia, and several industrial inland populations occupationally exposed to organic dusts.