Table 4.
Exposure (twa m− 3 air) to dust, endotoxin and bacteria (Step 3).
| Position (s) or worker | Measurement | Dust (mg) | Endotoxin (EU) | Total bacteria (number) | Thermophilic actinomycetes (cfu) | Mesophilic actinomycetes (cfu) |
| Worker 1b, position S1, S4 and in a trucka | Personal | 4.15 | 3.22× 105 | 1.25 × 108 | 1.19× 106 | 1.26 × 108 |
| Worker 2b, position S4 and in a truck | Personal | 1.52 | 1.40× 105 | 1.08 × 108 | 1.05× 106 | 2.45 × 107 |
| Seed reception (S1) | Stationary | 1.49 | 7.44× 105 | 8.44 × 107 | 7.83× 105 | 3.43 × 107 |
| Seed silo (S2) | Stationary | 9.10 | 1.34× 105 | 1.58 × 108 | 9.05× 106 | 3.05 × 108 |
| Seed cleaning (S3) | Stationary | 1.05 | 4.25× 104 | 4.06 × 107 | 1.53× 106 | 1.93 × 107 |
| Packaging of cleaned seeds (S4) | Stationary | 0.26 | 2.39× 104 | 2.08 × 107 | 1.29× 106 | 6.80 × 106 |
| Outdoor reference | Stationary | 0.011 | 2.35 | Bd | 9.74 × 102 | 3.82 × 103 |
Bd, below detection level; Twa, time-weighted average. Concentrations higher than suggested exposure limits (OELs) are in bold. For dust, it is concentrations larger than 3 mg m−3 air (Arbejdstilsynet, 2007); for endotoxin, it is concentrations larger than 90 EU m−3 (Health Council of the Netherlands, 2010) and for cfu of thermophilic actinomycetes, it is concentrations larger than 2 × 104 m−3 (Dutkiewicz et al., 1994). For cfu of mesophilic actinomycetes, no suggested TLV is available.
a
Areas the workers reported to be occupied in.