RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Environmental and health studies of farm workers in Swedish swine confinement buildings.
JF British Journal of Industrial Medicine
JO Br J Ind Med
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 31
OP 37
DO 10.1136/oem.46.1.31
VO 46
IS 1
A1 K Donham
A1 P Haglind
A1 Y Peterson
A1 R Rylander
A1 L Belin
YR 1989
UL http://oem.bmj.com/content/46/1/31.abstract
AB The relation between the health of workers and the environment in swine confinement buildings was investigated in a study of 57 workers on 30 swine farms in southern Sweden and 55 matched controls. Swine workers reported significantly higher frequencies of respiratory symptoms, more frequent colds and absence due to chest illness, and a history of pneumonia. The increased frequency of symptoms of respiratory disease was related to the number of years and percent of the day spent working with swine. Symptoms were also associated with respirable dust, total dust, endotoxin in total dust, and number of microbes in the air of the work environment. In a multiple regression analysis of the relation between 16 different environmental parameters to work period shifts of five pulmonary function parameters, endotoxin was found to be significantly related to the FEV1 in a dose dependent way.