The Relation Between Subjective Dust Exposure Estimates and Quantitative Dust Exposure Measurements in California Agriculture

Details

• Personal Author:
  Nieuwenhuijsen MJ ; Noderer KS ; Schenker MB
• Description:
  Agriculture workers' subjective estimations of dust exposure levels were compared with personal dust exposure measurements. Farmworkers at ten farms in California participated in the study. Inhalable dust measurements were compared with subjective dust estimates of 124 farmworkers. An Institute of Occupational Medicine inhalable dust sampler with a detection limit of 0.03 milligram (mg) per filter was used and the average sampling time was 157 minutes. Respirable dust measurements were compared to the subjective dust estimates for 129 farmworkers. A respirable dust cyclone was used with a detection limit of 0.067mg per filter and the average sampling time was 165 minutes. Weak to moderate correlations for individuals' subjective dust estimates were noted with measured dust concentrations for both the inhalable and respirable dust fractions. The within worker reliability coefficients were low. Grouped subjective dust estimates performed better and showed a consistent increase with average measured dust levels, particularly the inhalable dust fraction. The number of years worked in agriculture, education level, the presence of any respiratory symptoms, and the language of the questionnaire did not have a significant independent effect on the relationship between measured dust levels and subjective dust estimates. The authors conclude that California agricultural workers appear reasonably good at estimating inhalable dust levels, particularly if an average of many different workers is taken. However, they are not able to provide good estimates of respirable dust levels. Measuring dust levels is preferable for studies of dust exposure. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Air Pollutants, Occupational Dust Occupational Health Particulate Matter Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety
• Keywords:
  Agricultural-industry Agricultural-workers Airborne-dusts Dust-exposure Epidemiology; Humans NIOSH-Cooperative-Agreement NIOSH-Publication Plant-dusts Pulmonary-system-disorders
• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  355-363
• Volume:
  32
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00238752
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 1997 Oct; 32(4):355-363
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1998
• Performing Organization:
  University of California - Davis
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19900930
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• End Date:
  20020929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a0e100d89c0f36aa379f8f966f4604b97f350ba18001b4994ecc6ba42a886806bcb7847f0389796d00041b4ce543c34fb345bf2170e231cc42139503fc376c93
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/197940/cdc_197940_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 80.45 KB ]