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Occupational Exposures in an Equestrian Centre to Respirable Dust and Respirable Crystalline Silica

Sand-based products are regularly used as footing material on indoor equestrian arenas, creating a potential occupational exposure risk for respirable crystalline silica (RCS) for equestrian workers training and exercising horses in these environments. The objective of this study was to evaluate an...

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Autores principales: Bulfin, Kathleen, Cowie, Hilary, Galea, Karen S., Connolly, Alison, Coggins, Marie Ann
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6747462/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31484444
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173226
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author Bulfin, Kathleen
Cowie, Hilary
Galea, Karen S.
Connolly, Alison
Coggins, Marie Ann
author_facet Bulfin, Kathleen
Cowie, Hilary
Galea, Karen S.
Connolly, Alison
Coggins, Marie Ann
author_sort Bulfin, Kathleen
collection PubMed
description Sand-based products are regularly used as footing material on indoor equestrian arenas, creating a potential occupational exposure risk for respirable crystalline silica (RCS) for equestrian workers training and exercising horses in these environments. The objective of this study was to evaluate an equestrian worker’s personal RCS and respirable dust (RD) exposure. Sixteen personal full-shift RD measurements were collected from an equestrian worker and analysed for RD, quartz and cristobalite. Geometric mean exposures of 0.12 mg m(−3) and 0.02 mg m(−3) were calculated for RD and RCS concentrations, respectively. RCS exposures of between 0.01 to 0.09 mg m(−3) were measured on days when the indoor arena surface was not watered, compared to lower exposures (<LOD-0.03 mg m(−3)) on days when the indoor arena was watered (p < 0.01); however, manual watering is time intensive and less likely to be implemented in practice. This small-scale study provides new data on RCS and RD exposures among equestrian workers. RCS exposures are within the range considered to be associated with increased risk for lung cancer. The use of dust control solutions such as water suppression should be promoted for equestrian work in horse riding arenas. Equestrian workers need to receive occupational health training on the health risks associated with RCS exposure.
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spelling pubmed-67474622019-09-27 Occupational Exposures in an Equestrian Centre to Respirable Dust and Respirable Crystalline Silica Bulfin, Kathleen Cowie, Hilary Galea, Karen S. Connolly, Alison Coggins, Marie Ann Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Sand-based products are regularly used as footing material on indoor equestrian arenas, creating a potential occupational exposure risk for respirable crystalline silica (RCS) for equestrian workers training and exercising horses in these environments. The objective of this study was to evaluate an equestrian worker’s personal RCS and respirable dust (RD) exposure. Sixteen personal full-shift RD measurements were collected from an equestrian worker and analysed for RD, quartz and cristobalite. Geometric mean exposures of 0.12 mg m(−3) and 0.02 mg m(−3) were calculated for RD and RCS concentrations, respectively. RCS exposures of between 0.01 to 0.09 mg m(−3) were measured on days when the indoor arena surface was not watered, compared to lower exposures (<LOD-0.03 mg m(−3)) on days when the indoor arena was watered (p < 0.01); however, manual watering is time intensive and less likely to be implemented in practice. This small-scale study provides new data on RCS and RD exposures among equestrian workers. RCS exposures are within the range considered to be associated with increased risk for lung cancer. The use of dust control solutions such as water suppression should be promoted for equestrian work in horse riding arenas. Equestrian workers need to receive occupational health training on the health risks associated with RCS exposure. MDPI 2019-09-03 2019-09 /pmc/articles/PMC6747462/ /pubmed/31484444 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173226 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bulfin, Kathleen
Cowie, Hilary
Galea, Karen S.
Connolly, Alison
Coggins, Marie Ann
Occupational Exposures in an Equestrian Centre to Respirable Dust and Respirable Crystalline Silica
title Occupational Exposures in an Equestrian Centre to Respirable Dust and Respirable Crystalline Silica
title_full Occupational Exposures in an Equestrian Centre to Respirable Dust and Respirable Crystalline Silica
title_fullStr Occupational Exposures in an Equestrian Centre to Respirable Dust and Respirable Crystalline Silica
title_full_unstemmed Occupational Exposures in an Equestrian Centre to Respirable Dust and Respirable Crystalline Silica
title_short Occupational Exposures in an Equestrian Centre to Respirable Dust and Respirable Crystalline Silica
title_sort occupational exposures in an equestrian centre to respirable dust and respirable crystalline silica
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6747462/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31484444
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173226
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