Measures of Dust, Endotoxin, and Exhaled Nitric Oxide among Dairy Farm Workers

描述（由申请人提供）：与其他行业的工人相比，呼吸系统疾病在农业工人中更为常见。然而，乳制品行业的工人却很少受到关注。在过去的十年里，乳制品行业已经转变为依赖更多的员工。这些工人可能会以更大的程度和更长的时间暴露于引起肺部炎症的物质中。肺部炎症的存在也可能是哮喘、慢性支气管炎或慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）的一个指标。呼出一氧化氮（eNO）已被广泛用作诊断哮喘和衡量哮喘治疗有效性的工具，但eNO尚未用于评估大型畜群奶牛场工人的肺部炎症。因此，本研究将在大型牧群奶牛场工人样本中测量eNO。还将评估这些工人的粉尘和内毒素职业暴露情况。一个广义的线性模型将用于观察交叉位移变化的eNO，暴露于内毒素和粉尘之间的关系。拟议的研究具有创新性，因为很少有研究评估大型畜群奶牛场工人的肺部健康与暴露于诸如灰尘和内毒素等物质之间的关系。本研究的结果将对理解这些暴露与大型牛群奶牛场工人肺部健康之间的关系产生重大影响。这项研究将为开发潜在干预措施的领域提供见解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Respiratory disease is more common among agricultural workers compared to workers in other industries. However, little attention has been given to workers in the dairy industry. Over the past decade, the dairy industry has changed to rely on more employees. These workers may be exposed at a greater magnitude and duration to agents which cause lung inflammation. The presence of lung inflammation may also be an indicator of asthma, chronic bronchitis, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Exhaled NO (eNO) has been used extensively as a tool to diagnose asthma and measure the effectiveness of asthma treatments, however eNO has not been used to evaluate lung inflammation among large herd dairy farm workers. Therefore, this study will measure eNO among a sample of large herd dairy farm workers. Occupational exposure to dust and endotoxin will also be assessed among these workers. A generalized linear model will be used to observe relationships between cross shift changes in eNO, and exposure to endotoxin and dust. The proposed research is innovative because there are few studies evaluating relationships between pulmonary health and exposure to agents such as dust and endotoxin among large herd dairy farm workers. The results of this study will have a significant impact on the understanding the relationship between these exposures and pulmonary health among large herd dairy farm workers. This study will provide insight into areas where potential interventions may be developed. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project will provide information about dust and endotoxin exposures that dairy farm workers experience. This project will also provide information about the relationship of exhaled nitric oxide and pulmonary symptoms to these dust and endotoxin exposures. Learning more about the magnitude, sources and health impact of these exposures will allow for the development of prevention strategies. Finally, the skills acquired by the principal investigator during the course of this study will enable this investigator to perform research independently on future research projects.