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Dust entry

Narcotic alkaloid dust

Airborne alkaloid powder generated during pharmaceutical narcotic manufacturing and dry-powder handling, including morphine and codeine operations.

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

occupational asthmaairway hyperreactivityrespiratory symptomsskin sensitisation concern

Evidence

In a NIOSH health-hazard evaluation, investigators concluded that employees developed asthma from occupational exposure to narcotic dusts; the report measured airborne alkaloid dust and found asthma-like responses among exposed workers.

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Abstract · 1
Industrial hygiene monitoring detected substantial exposures to alkaloid dusts throughout the building. A concentration as high as 23,564 micrograms/cubic meter was detected in a short-term sample collected during the hand scooping of dry powder. ... The authors conclude that workers ... developed asthma from occupational exposure to narcotic dusts.

The HSE review reports a good body of evidence that opiates can induce occupational asthma, including asthma associated with morphine hydrochloride and morphine dust, and classifies opiates as respiratory sensitisers under its reviewed criteria.

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page 107 · C35: OPIATES — Summary and conclusion · 1
There is a good body of evidence that opiates have the potential to induce occupational asthma, particularly given the likely circumstances of generally careful control of exposure in a limited number of production units. There is a plausible mechanism for asthma induction, one that is pharmacological in nature and related to the ability of opiates to cause bronchoconstriction.

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