Assessment of swine worker exposures to dust and endotoxin during hog load-out and power washing.

ABSTRACT: Field measurements of personal and area dust and endotoxin concentrations were obtained while agricultural workers performed two work tasks that have been previously unreported: hog load-out and swine building power washing. Hog load-out involves moving hogs from their pens in finishing buildings into a truck for transport to a meat processor. High pressure power washing is conducted for sanitation purposes after a building has been emptied of hogs to remove surface and floor debris. This debris consists of feed, feces, and hog dander as dust or an encrusted form. The hog load-out process necessarily increases pig activity which is known to increase airborne dust concentrations. An unintended consequence of power washing is that the material covering surfaces is forcibly ejected into the a

SUBMITTER: O'Shaughnessy P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3415068 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature