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常见。然而，很少有人关注乳制品行业的工人。在过去的十年里，乳制品行业已经改变，依赖于更多的员工。这些工人可能以更大的强度和持续时间暴露于引起肺部炎症的制剂。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病（COPD）的指标。呼出的一氧化氮（eNO）已被广泛用作诊断哮喘和衡量哮喘治疗效果的工具，但eNO尚未用于评估大型奶牛场工人的肺部炎症。因此，本研究将测量大群奶牛场工人的样本中的eNO。还将对这些工人的粉尘和内毒素职业暴露进行评估。广义线性模型将用于观察eNO交叉偏移变化与内毒素和粉尘暴露之间的关系。拟议的研究是创新的，因为很少有研究评估肺健康和暴露于大群奶牛场工人中的灰尘和内毒素等物质之间的关系。这项研究的结果将有显着的影响，了解这些暴露和肺健康之间的关系，在大型奶牛场工人。这项研究将深入了解可能制定干预措施的领域。 公共卫生相关性：该项目将提供有关奶牛场工人经历的灰尘和内毒素暴露的信息。这个项目也将提供呼出的一氧化氮和肺部症状与这些粉尘和内毒素暴露之间关系的信息。更多地了解这些接触的程度、来源和健康影响，将有助于制定预防战略。最后，主要研究者在本研究过程中获得的技能将使该研究者能够独立开展未来研究项目的研究。

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.