Industrialization of farming, animal raising, and forestry has added chemical and mechanical hazards that need to be recognized and prevented. Lung disease among farmworkers can result from a wide variety of hazardous exposures, which include organic dusts, allergens, chemicals, toxic gases, and infectious agents. In addition to nonspecific symptoms of mucous membrane irritation, farmworkers can experience occupational asthma or bronchitis, organic dust toxic syndrome, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, silo filler's disease (toxic hemorrhagic pulmonary edema), and neuromuscular respiratory failure. At risk are farmworkers and those involved in the processing, stocking, transportation, handling, and inspection of unprocessed agricultural, animal, and forestry products; veterinarians; gardeners; game, river, and forest keepers; persons involved in building, supplying, or servicing farm operations; and residents of rural communities. Worker education on the risks of environmental exposures, adherence to safety regulations, and increased knowledge of the cause and prevention of environmental diseases will reduce their prevalence and their adverse human and animal health and socioeconomic effects.
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Institute of Agricultural Rural and Environmental Health, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
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Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, 53792, USA.
Industrialization of farming, animal raising, and forestry has added chemical and mechanical hazards that need to be recognized and prevented. Lung disease among farmworkers can result from a wide variety of hazardous exposures, which include organic dusts, allergens, chemicals, toxic gases, and infectious agents. In addition to nonspecific symptoms of mucous membrane irritation, farmworkers can experience occupational asthma or bronchitis, organic dust toxic syndrome, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, silo filler's disease (toxic hemorrhagic pulmonary edema), and neuromuscular respiratory failure.
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