Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA 83-327-1402: Weatherwax Golf Course, Middletown, Ohio

Details

• Personal Author:
  Liss, Gary M. ; Moseley, Clifford L.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from the City Health Department of Middletown, Ohio, an investigation was begun into an outbreak of acute respiratory illness in workers at the Weatherwax Golf Course (SIC-7992). Workers had experienced an outbreak of acute respiratory illness following the unloading of a truck filled with wood chips. Five employees experienced fever, chills, weakness, cough, chest tightness, and headaches, while six employees were not ill. Chips in the front of the truck may have been stored there for about a year. The fungi growing from the wood chips included species of Thermoactinomyces, Aspergillus, Mucor and Candida. Workers who were ill had worked unloading the front part of the truck. Symptoms began to appear approximately 13 hours after the work had been performed. The affected workers were well within 3 days. No diagnostically meaningful serological responses were identified. The authors conclude that the outbreak may have been pulmonary mycotoxicosis brought on by a toxic reaction to the inhalation of large amounts of fungi. Several recommendations were made to avoid this problem in the future.
• Subjects:
  Dust Fungi Hypersensitivity Lung Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety
• Keywords:
  Gardeners Gardening Hazard-Confirmed HETA-83-327-1402 Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Occupational-exposure Organic-dusts OSHA Region 5 Public Golf Courses Pulmonary Mycotoxicosis Respiratory-system-disorders Wood Chips

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA833271402
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  21 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Fink, Jordan N.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00233165
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB97-124440
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 83-327-1402, 1984 Jan ; :1-18
• Editor(s):
  Pasley, Gloria
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1984
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  7992 - Public golf courses - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:36f74b6a0f3349c560a9bd437c1c4d0e00d2aa9bce840246bc154fa00b5622cc407c6f8c1443d174d856aea6bdc04c00b464b01dc7c8822a0d2b7eb347560a89
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171186/cdc_171186_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 6.14 MB ]