Module 4: Organic Dusts - Exercise |
In the last year the institute moved to a new building and all 7 workers were also relocated. Shortly thereafter workers in the cleaning room reported frequent episodes of respiratory and flu-like symptoms after work, which were suspected to be due to exposure to the dust and malfunctioning of the hood ventilation system. Dust measurements during work appeared to be relatively high on many occasions, often exceeding 10 mg/m3.
The following symptoms were reported by workers in the cleaning room during this period:
URT (stuffy nose, frequent nose bleeding) LRT (chest tightness, dyspnoea) Flu-like (fever, shivering) Joint pain GIT (diarrhoea, pain, nausea) Fatigue (chronic, recurrent) Headache, migraine |
2 out of the 7 5 out of the 7 4 out of the 7 3 out of the 7 2 out of the 7 5 out of the 7 2 out of the 7 |
Is it likely that these symptoms were indeed due to exposure? Substantiate your answer.
(See the answer)
If so, is it a case of occupational allergy? Substantiate your answer.
(See the answer)
Which steps may be taken to assess whether it is allergy?
(See the answer)
If your answer to question 2 is "NO", what other explanation would you suggest? How could you test your suggestion?
(See the answer)
What recommendations would you have for the employer?
(See the answer)
Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3 – 5: Occupational Medicine & Toxicology by Prof Rodney Ehrlich & Prof Mohamed Jeebhay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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