Organic Dust, Endotoxin, and Ammonia Exposures in the North Carolina Poultry Processing Industry

Abstract The growth of the poultry processing industry was possible because of veterinary preventive medicine techniques and improvements in breeding, feed conversion, housing, and marketing practices. Increased production of broilers has caused an increase in the amount of airborne contaminants to which poultry processing workers (growers, catchers, and hangers) are exposed. The purposes of this research were to evaluate the exposures experienced by poultry processing workers in North Carolina and to recommend control measures for reducing exposures below levels considered to be safe. Exposure estimates were compared to 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) limits of 10 mg/m3 for total dust, 5 mg/m3 for respirable dust, 10 ng/m3 for bacterial endotoxin, and 25 ppm for ammonia with a STEL of 35 ppm. Personal sampling at 22 North Carolina poultry farms involving 26 growers produced geometric mean 8-hour TWA concentrations of 11.6 mg/m3 for inhalable dust, 0.60 mg/m3 for respirable dust, 100 ng/m3 for inhalabl...