Occupational exposure to particulate matter from three agricultural crops in California

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bennett DH ; Garcia J ; Moran RE ; Schenker MB
• Description:
  Agricultural work is a major contributor to California's and the nation's economy and employs a large number of workers. However, agricultural work can have numerous risks, such as exposure to elevated levels of particulate matter (PM) and other airborne pollutants with potential adverse health effects. To determine the magnitude of occupational exposures, PM levels were assessed for 89 workers from three major crops in California; almonds, melons and tomatoes. Personal samples were collected for PM2.5 and inhalable PM using personal sampling equipment. Geometric mean concentrations from personal exposure for workers in almonds (inhalable PM=4368 µg/m(3), PM2.5=122 µg/m(3), N=5), tomatoes (inhalable PM=1410 µg/m(3), PM2.5=12 µg/m(3), N=33), and melons (inhalable PM=1118 µg/m(3), PM2.5=19 µg/m(3), N=51) showed high PM exposure when working with these three crops. Large exposure differences by crop were more common than by task (i.e. harvesting, packing and weeding) among the three crops studied. This is the largest study of agricultural workers engaged in hand harvesting, a significant employer of farm labor, and relatively high levels of exposure to PM were measured. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Air Pollutants, Occupational Dust Emigration And Immigration Hazardous Substances Men Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Particulate Matter Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Women

  More +
• Keywords:
  Agricultural-industry Agricultural-workers Airborne-dusts Airborne-particles Author Keywords: Agriculture Exposure-levels Health-hazards Humans Inhalable PM Migrant Workers Occupational Exposure Particulate-dust Particulates PM(2.5) Pollutants Risk-factors

  More +
• ISSN:
  1438-4639
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• 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:
  226-230
• Volume:
  217
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20045039
• Citation:
  Int J Hyg Environ Health 2014 Mar; 217(2-3):226-230
• Contact Point Address:
  Deborah H. Bennett, Department of Public Health Sciences, University ofCalifornia, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616
• Email:
  dhbennett@ucdavis.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Performing Organization:
  University of California - Davis
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20080401
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health
• End Date:
  20140331
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:47298c711634673b6166093495327af3b8516e3f5488516186d54616904b0ad6968e57621b84c96f8ecdc0290dbb0389e0aeb97b6cb59cc28ea7d91441f48f29
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/200584/cdc_200584_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 309.53 KB ]