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Browsing by Author "Erlandson, Grant, author"

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    Assessment and intervention strategies for agricultural inhalation exposures in occupational and community environments
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Erlandson, Grant, author; Schaeffer, Joshua, advisor; Magzamen, Sheryl, committee member; Abdo, Zaid, committee member; Martenies, Sheena, committee member
    Agriculture represents an industry vital to the U.S. economy, supplying the public with nutritious food and providing millions of workers with employment. Also characterized as one of the most hazardous industries for workers, agricultural environments contain a variety of inhalation hazards capable of impacting the health of workers and adjacent community residents. Agricultural inhalation hazards include airborne organic and inorganic dusts; livestock associated gases, pesticides, bacteria, viruses, and antibiotics. This study will focus on (1) bioaerosol exposures in dairy operations and (2) inorganic dust pesticide exposures from agricultural applications. In dairy environments, workers are regularly exposed to high levels of organic dust (bioaerosols) and their inflammatory constituents (e.g., endotoxin, muramic acid, and β-glucans). Dairy bioaerosol exposure is associated with increased prevalence of respiratory disease (e.g., asthma, rhinitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) in dairy workers. While bioaerosol exposure in dairy environments has been well characterized in previous research, efforts to identify hygienic interventions that control exposure remain unsuccessful. In crop production agriculture, it is well documented that workers are exposed to high levels of pesticides associated with adverse health outcomes (e.g., respiratory and neurologic diseases). Further, in agricultural adjacent community environments, where lower chronic pesticide exposures are found, there is mounting evidence linking adverse health effects (e.g., adult and iii childhood cancers, neurologic and respiratory diseases, and birth outcomes) in residents to exposure from agricultural pesticide applications. However, weak and sometimes inconsistent associations previously reported highlight the limitations of current community exposure assessment techniques used for pesticides. For specific Aim 1, we pilot tested a novel low-cost nasal rinse intervention to modulate airway inflammation in ten bioaerosol exposed dairy workers. Dairy workers were randomly split into treatment (n = 5) and control (n = 5) groups and administered saline nasal rinses before and after their shift for five consecutive days. Treatment group participants received pre-shift hypertonic saline rinses while the control group received normotonic saline rinses. Both received normotonic rinses post-shift. Pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines were measured from recovered saline rinses. Linear mixed model results indicated treatment group participants experienced significantly higher concentrations of anti- (IL-10) and pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and IL-8) than the control group (p < 0.02, p <0.04, and p < 0.01 respectively). This study demonstrates the capacity of hypertonic saline nasal rinses to successfully upregulate anti-inflammatory cytokine production. However, conflicting upregulation of pro-inflammatory markers cloud interpretations of efficacy. For Aim 2, we further evaluated the immunomodulatory effects of hypertonic saline rinses vs. normotonic saline rinses longitudinally (2-5 shifts) in 45 bioaerosol exposed dairy workers. However, in this aim, treatment group participants received hypertonic rinses pre- and post-shift and 16S sequencing was added to analyses to capture potential washout effects on microbial diversity. No significant differences were observed between group or day for any of the measured markers or microbiome diversity metrics. Yet, non-significant increases in anti-inflammatory IL-10 concentrations across the study period were observed independent of iv treatment group suggesting the rinse itself may be more impactful than tonicity. This study provided mixed but encouraging results that justify further research on nasal rinses as an intervention in bioaerosol exposed dairy workers. For Aim 3, we evaluated the agreement between three exposure assessment techniques used to estimate residential organophosphate (OP) exposure in agricultural adjacent communities located in the Central Valley of California. OP exposure was estimated from household dust samples, California Pesticide Use Report (CPUR) pesticide use modeling, and urinary DAP metabolites across two sampling campaigns. Simple correlation tests revealed moderate correlations (ρs = 0.46) between household dust and use model exposure estimates. Estimates from urinary DAP metabolites exhibited low to no correlation with the other two estimates. Linear mixed model results also indicated no association between urinary DAP metabolites and household dust or use model estimates. This study illustrates a lack of agreement between community pesticide exposure assessment techniques regularly used in research and motivates the development of more robust assessment techniques.
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    Comparison of indoor air quality between building type in campus buildings
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Erlandson, Grant, author; Schaeffer, Joshua, advisor; Carter, Ellison, committee member; Magzamen, Sheryl, committee member; Reynolds, Stephen, committee member
    The average American spends an estimated 90% of their time indoors on any given day. Rapid urbanization is also sweeping the country leading to ever increasing time spent in the built environment. Human exposure to the surrounding environment accounts for 90% of all disease. The air we breathe represents a major component of that exposure and becomes increasingly relevant as more time is spent indoors. Many studies have set out to characterize and improve indoor air quality in various settings from the workplace to schools. However, few have investigated higher education and its shift toward green, sustainable buildings. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effects of building type and occupancy on indoor air quality in higher education buildings. We measured LEED certified, retrofitted, and conventional building types on a college campus for particulate matter, formaldehyde, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. For each building type, we conducted multi-zonal, 48 hour measurements during times when the buildings were occupied and unoccupied. Statistically significant differences in two size fractions of particulate matter were observed between building types. Carbon dioxide and particulate matter concentrations were significantly higher during occupied sampling when compared to unoccupied. Results from this study suggest that occupancy status has a larger impact on indoor air quality in campus buildings than building type.