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Dust entry

Spice dust

Airborne particulate generated while grinding, mixing, and handling spices in food-processing work.

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

upper-respiratory irritationallergic sensitization concernskin-contact health effectsinhalable-dust exposure

Evidence

A NIOSH evaluation at a snack-food facility found high dust levels when seasonings were added to a tumbler funnel and near a corn extruder; workers reported irritation from spicy seasonings, including watery eyes, sneezing, coughing, nasal congestion, runny nose, and difficulty breathing.

Source: pdf ↗ · saved source
page 4 · Highlights of this Evaluation — What NIOSH Found · 3
Many employees in the chips packaging and seasoning areas reported symptoms of irritation when working with spicy seasonings ... Symptoms included watery eyes, sneezing, coughing, congestion, running nose, and difficulty breathing. ... High levels of dust [were found] in the chip production area when employees added seasonings to the tumbler funnel and near the corn extruder.

NIOSH reported that spice dust exposure can cause health problems through inhalation and skin contact, and noted irritant and allergenic properties; employees grinding spices had higher inhalable-dust exposures and reported occasional upper-respiratory irritation.

Source: pdf ↗ · saved source
page 2 · Background · 3
The store contained hundreds of types of spices, but only certain spices were ground on site. These included cinnamon, pepper, ginger, cloves, allspice, mushrooms, fermented black garlic, coriander, cumin, and mustard. Cinnamon was the most common spice that was ground on site. ... Exposure to spice dusts has been reported to cause human health problems through inhalation and skin contact. ... Because of the irritant and allergenic properties of spice dust, from a health perspective, the PEL for PNOR does not adequately protect the health of employees.

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