A Strategy for Field Evaluations of Exposures and Respiratory Health of Workers at Small- to Medium-Sized Coffee Facilities

Coffee production is a global industry with roasteries throughout the world. Workers in this industry are exposed to complex mixtures of gases, dusts, and vapors including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, coffee dust, allergens, alpha-diketones, and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Adverse respiratory health outcomes such as respiratory symptoms, reduced pulmonary function, asthma, and obliterative bronchiolitis can occur among exposed workers. In response to health hazard evaluations requests received from 17 small- to medium-sized coffee facilities across the United States, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health conducted investigations during 2016–2017 to understand the burden of respiratory abnormalities, exposure characteristics, relationships between exposures and respiratory effects, and opportunities for exposure mitigation. Full-shift, task-based, and instantaneous personal and area air samples for diacetyl, 2,3-pentanedione and other VOCs were collected, and engineering controls were evaluated. Medical evaluations included questionnaire, spirometry, impulse oscillometry, and fractional exhaled nitric oxide. Exposure and health assessments were conducted using standardized tools and approaches, which enabled pooling data for aggregate analysis. The pooled data provided a larger population to better address the requestors' concern of the effect of exposure to alpha-diketones on the respiratory heath of coffee workers. This paper describes the rationale for the exposure and health assessment strategy, the approach used to achieve the study objectives, and its advantages and limitations.