Source: Annual Congress 2010 - Occupational asthma
Disease area: Airway diseases, Respiratory critical care

Abstract

Background The ventilation of an animal facility consumes a lot of energy. The question arose whether if it was possible to reduce the ventilation rate without affecting the occupational exposure levels of ammonia and allergens.
Aims To measure the occupational exposure to ammonia and allergen in air and in the ambient air for mice in the cages when the ventilation system in the facility was changed.
Methods The facility was monitored for personal and area concentrations of mouse allergen (in total n=124) and ammonia (n=158) measurements. Sampling was conducted for 5 days before and after the ventilation rate in the rooms was reduced by 20%. Afterwards all mouse cages were changed from open cages to individually ventilated cages with negative exhaust air pressure. A new period of sampling for 5 days was conducted. Mouse urinary allergen concentrations in air were measured using a polyclonal sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
Results The ventilation rate reduction increased the mouse room air concentration of ammonia from 148 mg/m³ to 463 mg/m³ (p=0.05). After installation of individually ventilated cages the concentration of ammonia was reduced to 52 mg/m³ (p=0.006) in the ambient air of the mice room. The same tendency was seen when measuring ammonia in the air off cages. The average ambient airborne level of mouse allergen in the mouse room was 12 (2-100) ng/m³. One person of the animal staff had an exposure to mouse allergen in the air > 10 times the recommended value.
Conclusions Effective reduction of occupational exposure to mouse allergen and ammonia can be achieved with individually ventilated cages, even if the ventilation rate in the room is reduced

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A. Dahlman-Höglund, S. Lohman, M. Andersson, A. Renström (Gothenburg, Stockholm, Sweden). Control of ammonia, allergen and CO₂ levels in a laboratory animal facility when ventilation rate is reduced. Eur Respir J 2010; 36: Suppl. 54, 1476

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