Industry-Wide Medical Surveillance in California Flavor Manufacturing Workers: Cross-Sectional Results

Details

• Personal Author:
  Fedan, Kathleen B. ; Kim TJ ; Kreiss, Kathleen ; Materna BJ ; Prudhomme JC ; Sahakian, Nancy ; Windham G
• Description:
  Rationale. After reports of two cases of bronchiolitis obliterans in flavor manufacturing workers, California health and labor agencies initiated industry-wide surveillance to identify extent of and risk factors for respiratory disease. Methods. We examined cross-sectional questionnaire and spirometry data submitted by companies' physicians for 584 workers in 19 workplaces, of whom 467 (80%) had acceptable data. We compared the prevalence ratios of respiratory symptoms, diagnoses, and abnormal spirometry in workers to a general population sample. We determined personal and workplace risk factors for spirometric obstructive abnormality with odds ratios. Results. Flavoring workers reported no excess of respiratory symptoms or physician diagnoses, but were 2.7 times more likely to have severe airways obstruction on spirometry testing, compared to the general population. Risk factors identified for 18 cases with airways obstruction from six companies included younger age group, Hispanic ethnicity, liquid and powder production work, greater company diacetyl usage, and having a coworker with obstruction. Conclusion. Public health surveillance documented a flavoring industry risk of severe lung disease, justifying preventive interventions to lower flavoring exposures and medical screening for secondary prevention until worker safety is demonstrated. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Asthma Asthma, Occupational Environmental Monitoring Lung Lung Diseases Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Safety Management Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Airway-obstruction Airway-resistance Breathing Bronchial-asthma Exposure-assessment Exposure-levels Exposure-methods Injuries Injury-prevention Lung-disorders Lung-function Lung-irritants Lung-tissue Occupational-hazards Occupations Pulmonary-clearance Pulmonary-congestion Pulmonary-disorders Pulmonary-function Pulmonary-system Pulmonary-system-disorders Risk-analysis Risk-factors Safety-measures Safety-practices Statistical-analysis Work-analysis Work-environment Work-operations Work-organization Work-performance Worker-health Workplace-studies

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• ISSN:
  1073-449X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  181
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037057
• Citation:
  Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2010 May; 181(Meeting Abstracts):A5111
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
• Supplement:
  Meeting Abstracts
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b235445467f4b230168d101f7c514f6adb145a30ac84823e80b97d0d8c08def5fff29e88478afe98221d1defe01710906083d3fdd4df360a5cfb46c20f368be4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/188217/cdc_188217_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 20.00 KB ]