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Annals of Occupational Hygiene Advance Access published online on February 7, 2005
Annals of Occupational Hygiene, doi:10.1093/annhyg/meh105
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© 2005 British Occupational Hygiene Society
Received July 22, 2004
Accepted November 1, 2004

Article

Assessment of Bioaerosols and Inhalable Dust Exposure in Swiss Sawmills

Anne Oppliger 1*, Sophie Rusca 1, Nicole Charrière 1, Trinh Vu Duc 1, and Pierre-Olivier Droz 1

1 Institute of Occupational Health Sciences, Rue du Bugnon 19, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Anne Oppliger, E-mail: Anne.Oppliger{at}hospvd.ch


  Abstract

An assessment of wood workers' exposure to airborne cultivable bacteria, fungi, inhalable endotoxins and inhalable organic dust was performed at 12 sawmills that process mainly coniferous wood species. In each plant, samples were collected at four or five different work sites (debarking, sawing, sorting, planing and sawing cockpit) and the efficiency of sampling devices (impinger or filter) for determining endotoxins levels was evaluated. Results show that fungi are present in very high concentrations (up to 35 000 CFU m-3) in all sawmills. We also find that there are more bioaerosols at the sorting work site (mean ± SD: 7723 ± 9919 CFU m-3 for total bacteria, 614 ± 902 CFU m-3 for Gram-negative, 19 438 ± 14 246 CFU m-3 for fungi, 7.0 ± 9.0 EU m-3 for endotoxin and 2.9 ± 4.8 g m-3 for dust) than at the sawing station (mean ± SD: 1938 ± 2478 CFU m-3 for total bacteria, 141 ± 206 CFU m-3 for Gram-negative, 12 207 ± 10 008 CFU m-3 for fungi, 2.1 ± 1.9 EU m-3 for endotoxin and 0.75 ± 0.49 mg m-3 for dust). At the same time, the species composition and concentration of airborne Gram-negative bacteria were studied. Penicillinium sp. were the predominant fungi, while Bacillus sp. and the Pseudomonadacea family were the predominant Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria encountered, respectively.


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