Bioaerosol in Composting Facilities: Occupational Health Risk Assessment

Abstract

This research found evidence of an association between occupational exposure to bioaerosols in composting plants and health outcome occurrence in exposed workers. An occupational exposure assessment in six composting plants was performed to better characterize personal exposure levels and evaluate associated health risk in workers. Sampling results showed large ranges of concentrations of dust, bacteria, molds, and endotoxin in ambient air and in personal samples, both when driving a front-end loader and when cleaning, monitoring, and performing maintenance tasks. Mean personal exposure levels were high at 100 to more than 10 000 times higher than outdoor background levels and fully consistent with occurrence of inflammatory and allergic respiratory outcomes among workers. Engineering control, personal protection, and education and training programs for employees, health, and safety officials, and occupational physicians are being developed and implemented. Water Environ. Res., 81, 866 (2009).

Exposures and Health Outcomes in Relation to Bioaerosol Emissions From Composting Facilities: A Systematic Review of Occupational and Community Studies

“…Bioaerosols occur naturally in ambient air at highly variable concentrations, with mean and median background concentrations ranging from 1 to 100,000 colony-forming units per cubic meter (cfu/m 3 ) for bacteria and fungi (Clark et al, 1983;Coccia et al, 2010;Crook et al, 2008;Deacon et al, 2009;Drew et al, 2007;Fischer et al, 2000, Herr et al, 2003b, Nadal et al, 2009Nikaeen et al, 2009;Reinthaler et al, 1999Reinthaler et al, , 2004Schlosser et al, 2009;Stagg et al, 2010;Swan et al, 2003;van Kampen et al, 2012;Williams et al, 2013).…”

“…• Variations in sampled concentration with season (fungal concentrations were overall greater in summer than winter; Schlosser et al, 2009). …”

“…Thirteen occupational studies measured personal exposure of compost workers to different bioaerosol components (Bünger et al, 2007;Crook et al, 2008;Drew et al, 2007;Douwes et al, 1997;Epstein et al, 2001;Krajewski et al, 2002;Schlosser et al, 2009;Sigsgaard et al, 1994;Stagg et al, 2010;Sykes et al, 2011;Taha et al, 2007;Wheeler et al, 2001), detecting significantly high concentrations of actinomycetes, Aspergillus fumigatus, fungi, and endotoxin (Stagg et al, 2010), and elevated personal exposure levels of endotoxin in workers, particularly during composting agitation activities (Sykes et al, 2011). Four occupational studies measured mesophilic mould/fungi (Reinthaler et al, 2004;Schlosser et al, 2009;Tolvanen et al, 2005;van Kampen et al, 2014). All mean/median (depending on metric reported) onsite measurements completed by Reinthaler et al (2004) and Schlosser et al (2009) exceeded the 50,000 cfu/m 3 occupational limit set by BAUA in Germany in 2006(BAUA, 2006.…”

“…Four occupational studies measured mesophilic mould/fungi (Reinthaler et al, 2004;Schlosser et al, 2009;Tolvanen et al, 2005;van Kampen et al, 2014). All mean/median (depending on metric reported) onsite measurements completed by Reinthaler et al (2004) and Schlosser et al (2009) exceeded the 50,000 cfu/m 3 occupational limit set by BAUA in Germany in 2006(BAUA, 2006. Median on-site measurements by van Kampen et al (2014) at sorting cabins, delivery places, and during processing also exceeded the BAUA limit.…”

Respiratory hospital admission risk near large composting facilities

“…Similarly we did not account for variations in seasonality, as this study was designed to look at spatial and not temporal variability in respiratory admissions. While a handful of studies have reported that there is some seasonal variation in bioaerosol concentrations with elevations in the summer and winter months (Neilsen et al 1997;Recer et al 2001;Schlosser et al 2009), the evidence base is limited and the relationship between bioaerosol emissions from composting facilities and season is not well understood. Future work is needed to improve exposure estimates.…”