Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.2478/10004-1254-61-2010-199
Endotoxin Exposure Assessment in Wood-Processing Industry: Airborne Versus Settled Dust Levels
Ivana Sabolić Pipinić
; Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Veda Marija Varnai
; Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Ružica Beljo Lučić
; Faculty of Forestry, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Ankica Čavlović
; Faculty of Forestry, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Ljerka Prester
; Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Tatjana Orct
; Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Jelena Macan
orcid.org/0000-0001-6269-5475
; Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Wood processing is usually performed in environments with large amounts of endotoxin-rich bioaerosols that are associated with a variety of health effects. The aim of this preliminary study was to assess the relation between endotoxin levels in settled and airborne dust in wood-processing industry. Ten pairs of airborne and settled dust samples were collected in a sawmill and parquet manufacture of two wood-processing plants in Croatia. Endotoxin was assayed with a chromogenic end-point LAL (Limulus amebocyte lysate) method. The results showed that endotoxin levels in airborne respirable dust were above the proposed occupational exposure limit of 125 EU m-3 and could be considered hazardous for the respiratory system.
In settled dust they ranged between 229.7 EU mg-1 and 604.3 EU mg-1 and in airborne dust between 166.8 EU mg-1 and 671.6 EU m-3, but there was no signifi cant correlation between them (Spearman’s
rho=0.358, P=0.310). This study points to sawmill settled dust as endotoxin reservoir and suggests that it may add to already high exposure to airborne endotoxins associated with wood processing. Investigations of the relation between settled and airborne endotoxin levels should be continued to better understand the sources and sites of endotoxin contamination in wood-processing industry.
Keywords
airborne dust; bioaerosols; LAL test; parquet manufacture; sawmill
Hrčak ID:
53955
URI
Publication date:
16.6.2010.
Visits: 2.154 *