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HEALTH HAZARDS IN AGRICULTURE - A FOCUS ON BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS

HEALTH HAZARDS IN AGRICULTURE - A FOCUS ON BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS. Professor Mohamed Fareed Jeebhay Occupational and Environmental Health Research Unit School of Public Health and Family Medicine Faculty of Health Sciences - University of Cape Town. OUTLINE.

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HEALTH HAZARDS IN AGRICULTURE - A FOCUS ON BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS

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  1. HEALTH HAZARDS IN AGRICULTURE - A FOCUS ON BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS Professor Mohamed Fareed Jeebhay Occupational and Environmental Health Research UnitSchool of Public Health and Family MedicineFaculty of Health Sciences - University of Cape Town

  2. OUTLINE • What is a hazardous biological agent (HBA)? • Major categories of biological agents of natural origin and some examples • Common agricultural settings with exposure to HBA • Major mechanisms through which HBA cause health problems • Major health effects and occupational diseases caused by HBA

  3. WHAT IS A HAZARDOUS BIOLOGICAL AGENT (HBA)? Any cell (plant, animal, human), micro-organism or cell culture of natural origin or genetically engineered that constitutes a risk to human health

  4. MAJOR CATEGORIES OF BIOLOGICAL AGENTS OF NATURAL ORIGIN

  5. SECTOR Agriculture Agricultural products Sewage & waste disposal EXAMPLES Cultivating, harvesting, forestry Breeding and tending animals, fishing Abattoirs, food processing plants Storage facilities: grain silos, cotton, tobacco Processing animal hair, leather, silk Textile plants, sawmills, paper-mills Waste removal, treatment plants COMMON AGRICULTURAL SETTINGS WITH EXPOSURE TO HBA

  6. Cotton workers: cotton dust contaminated with endotoxin

  7. Grain harvesting and milling workers: grain dust, storage mites, beetles, mealworm

  8. Fruit farm workers: spider mite, predator mites, pollen

  9. SOME EXAMPLES Bird handlers: feathers, droppings, mites, bacteria

  10. Fishermen and fish processing workers: fish protein (blood, guts, muscle), Anisakis parasite, fishmeal dust

  11. sewer workers: bacteria sheep workers: bacteria

  12. BIOLOGICAL HAZARD VS RISK The “HAZARD” refers to the environmental stressors which have a capacity to do harm (bacteria, virus, toxin, etc.). The term “RISK” introduces an element of likelihood or possibility that the harmful event may take place Therefore for there to be a risk, there has to be “EXPOSURE” (potential or actual) to the harmful biological agent

  13. CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE Environmental factors - route of exposure: inhalation, direct skin contact, (ingestion) - dose and duration of exposure Host-associated factors- atopy- smoking- genetic (e.g. HLA-type)

  14. MECHANISMS BY WHICH HBA CAUSE HEALTH EFFECTS

  15. OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES DUE TO HBA

  16. AGRICULTURAL RESPIRATORY DISEASE

  17. Allergy to common allergens Allergy to grain dust: wheat, rye; and common allergens

  18. ASTHMA AND CHRONIC BRONCHITIS

  19. Induction and effector mechanisms in IgE-mediated hypersensitivity for allergic asthma (Lehrer SB et al; Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 1996)

  20. Natural history of occupational asthma

  21. EXTRINSIC ALLERGIC ALVEOLITIS/ HYPERSENSITIVITY PNEUMONITIS

  22. SKIN ALLERGY Dermatitis/eczema Urticaria/”bommels”/wheals

  23. INFECTIONS/ZOONOSIS Anthrax: skin “eschar” Malaria - mosquitoe bite

  24. MAIN MESSAGES • Biological hazards are a major problem in agricultural production • Occupational lung diseases (asthma, chronic bronchitis, pneumonitis) due to inhalation of organic dust are a common problem encountered among agricultural workers

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