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Dust entry

Fish-flour dust

Protein-containing dust generated when fish flour or fishmeal is incorporated into animal feed.

Airborne form

dust

The form describes what is suspended in air at the point of exposure. A material can produce more than one form, such as dust during handling and fume during heating.

Health effects

chronic respiratory symptomsacute workshift symptomsdyspneaairway irritationreduced ventilatory capacityimmunological sensitization concern

Evidence

A CDC/NIOSH-indexed study of animal-feed workers found chronic respiratory symptoms, frequent acute workshift symptoms, and across-shift ventilatory-capacity reductions, particularly among workers with positive skin tests to fish-flour antigen; the authors described probable direct irritant airway reactions.

Source: html ↗ · saved source
page 1 · Abstract · 1
A significantly higher prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms was found among the exposed workers compared to control workers. ... There were significant mean across-shift reductions for all ventilatory capacity tests ... Workers with positive skin tests to fish flour antigen had significantly larger across-shift reductions ... Our data suggest that ... animal food dust may produce ... direct irritant or pharmacological reactions on the airways.

HSE’s Asthmagen compendium reports that aerosols generated during cleaning fish can induce occupational asthma, with prevalence as high as 75% in one study using automatic gutting machines, and concludes that fish protein meets the criteria for classification as a respiratory sensitiser.

Source: pdf ↗ · saved source
page 99 · C32: Fish proteins — Summary and conclusion · 1
Exposure to aerosols generated during the cleaning of various species of fish has been shown to induce occupational asthma. ... The prevalence when using automatic gutting machines was as high as 75% in one study. There is sufficient evidence to conclude that fish protein meets the revised EU criteria (1996) for classification as a respiratory sensitiser.

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