No abstract

ossible adverse human health effects due to dust exposure have received growing attention in the last decade and are today an area of major concern. This is reflected at international agricultural conferences where the topic has appeared and at international medical and occupational conferences where the topic now is regularly represented with a substantial number of abstracts and oral presentations. The human health effects due to dust exposure are primarily respiratory because it is in the lungs that the dust interacts with the body. Researchers who are trying to evaluate (and in recent years solve) this problem have involved agricultural engineers and scientists, veterinarians, respiratory physicians, occupational physicians, epidemiologists, and immunologists. All these professions were represented at the International Symposium on Dust Control in Animal Production Facilities held in Aarhus, Denmark, in June 1999. This type of research has developed into and requires a truly multidisciplinary area of research.