Health effects on nearby residents of a wood treatment plant

Trigeminal Chemesthesis

“…A number of investigations have looked into complex mixtures of VOCs to establish their ability to elicit nasal and/or ocular trigeminal chemesthesis in humans, at threshold and suprathreshold levels, among other diverse effects. Examples of such complex stimuli include: environmental tobacco smoke (Cain et al, 1987), fragranced products (Millqvist et al, 1999;Opiekun et al, 2003), indoor air (Hudnell et al, 1992;Laumbach et al, 2005;Meininghaus et al, 2003;Otto et al, 1990), and outdoor air surrounding composting facilities (Müller et al, 2004), animal production facilities (Schiffman et al, 2000;Schiffman and Williams, 2005), and other industries (Dahlgren et al, 2003). In such studies, the typical goal was to assess the effect of the mixture (diluted or neat) on different groups of subjects (e.g., unexposed controls, exposed subjects, asthmatics, etc.).…”

Wood production, wood technology, and biotechnological impacts

“…Natural volatiles (see Chapter 11 of this book) emitted in larger quantities during wood processing might cause allergies -e.g., dermatitis was observed in increased frequencies in sawmill workers and employees within carpentry workshops (Eriksson et al 2004). Treatments of wood with toxic compounds to repress microbial and insect attacks can also launch various environmental and health risks (Westlund & Nohrstedt 2000, Dahlgren et al 2003, Dube et al 2004, Stook et al 2005, Chapter 13 of this book), for example through soil and groundwater contamination by leaching of toxic preservatives from wood in outdoor use or, after service, upon disposal at landfill sites (Khan et al 2004, Townsend et al 2005. In wood compo-site production, glues of petrochemical basis can be a cause of health problems (Yang et al 2001, Aalto-Korte et al 2003, Fransman et al 2003, Venn et al 2003 in addition to various paints and varnishes used for protection and decoration of wood products (Salthammer 1997, Wieslander et al 1997, Kaukiainen et al 2005.…”

“…Thus, living trees may need protection when wanting the highest possible yield and wood quality. Furthermore, harvested wood Dahlgren et al 2003, Dube et al 2004, Stook et al 2005. Strategies for biological control of microbes and insects offer environmentally friendly wood protection of low health risks.…”

AhR-mediated gene expression in the developing mouse telencephalon

“…TCDD exposure affects brain development, manifesting as long-term cognitive deficits in rodents [5,6] and monkeys [7,8]. Human exposure to PCB mixtures is also correlated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes, such as learning, memory, attention and IQ deficits, in numerous studies [9][10][11][12][13][14].…”