An Environmental Tractor Cab System Integrity Test

Details

• Personal Author:
  Heitbrink, William A. ; Jensen, Paul A. ; Martin, Stephen B. Jr. ; Moyer, Ernest S. ; Watkins, Daniel S. ; Berardinelli, Stephen P.
• Description:
  In the United States, more than five million workers are involved in agriculture. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has a long-standing initiative for investigation and prevention of occupational safety and health problems within the agricultural industry. A key component of this program is protecting the respiratory health of workers in the agricultural industry. Agricultural workers can be exposed to pesticides, dusts (organic and inorganic), mists, bacteria, fungi, and endotoxin. Exposure to these particulates can take place within environmental tractor cabs. Cab filters are not required to meet the same testing criteria as particulate respirator filters certified under 42 CFR 84. New and used particulate filters from environmental tractor cabs have been evaluated for filter penetration as a function of particle size in the submicrometer size range of 0.03-0.4 micrometers. The only standard that deals with environmental closures is the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) S525 consensus standard. This method entails driving a tractor enclosure system in a field and monitoring the penetration of 2.0 to 4.0 micrometer particles into the cab. The method employs two optical particle counters (Grimm PDM Counters). A second, novel method employs a stationary configuration and one two-channel particle counter to evaluate cab system integrity (ratio of inside to outside aerosol concentrations). Data comparing the ASAE S525 test results to this stationary testing method at 0.3 and 3.0 micrometer particle sizes indicate that the submicrometer particle size appears to be a better indicator of overall tractor cab performance. With both methods, aerosol coincidence problems must be considered. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Dust Endotoxins Farmers Fungi Inorganic Chemicals Insecticides Occupational Health Particulate Matter Personal Protective Equipment Respiratory Protective Devices Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety

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• Keywords:
  Workers; Agricultural-workers; Agriculture; Respiratory-infections; Respiratory-system-disorders; Respirable-dust; Respiration; Pesticides; Dusts; Dust-exposure; Exposure-levels; Organic-compounds; Inorganic-compounds; Bacteria; Fungi; Endotoxins; Particulate-dust; Particulates; Farmers; Filters; Respiratory-protective-equipment; Respirators; Tractors
• Publisher:
  American Industrial Hygiene Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  Louisiana ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 6 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies ; DPSE - Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  23 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041349
• Citation:
  American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, June 2-7, 2001, New Orleans, Louisiana. Fairfax, VA: American Industrial Hygiene Association, 2001 Jun; :7
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2001
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, June 2-7, 2001, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8ee488a62a48d95e15278569eb41610d2729ffe8bd6b57d27c9364fa8dcc2c1f9f9bd5c7986ab50680ab5b17f782b3966ae9d3ff2b019197ea51c177f493d277
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/231526/cdc_231526_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.07 MB ]