• Title/Summary/Keyword: Respiratory protection

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Evaluation of Respiratory Protection Program in Petrochemical Industries: Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process

  • Kolahi, Hadi;Jahangiri, Mehdi;Ghaem, Haleh;Rostamabadi, Akbar;Aghabeigi, Mandana;Farhadi, Payam;Kamalinia, Mojtaba
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.95-100
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    • 2018
  • Background: Respiratory protection equipment (RPE) is the last resort to control exposure to workplace air pollutants. A comprehensive respiratory protection program (RPP) ensures that RPE is selected, used, and cared properly. Therefore, RPP must be well integrated into the occupational health and safety requirements. In this study, we evaluated the implementation of RPP in Iranian petrochemical industries to identify the required solutions to improve the current status of respiratory protection. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 24 petrochemical industries in Iran. The survey instrument was a checklist extracted from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration respiratory protection standard. An index, Respiratory Protection Program Index (RPPI), was developed and weighted by analytic hierarchy process to determine the compliance rate (CR) of provided respiratory protection measures with the RPP standard. Data analysis was performed using Excel 2010. Results: The most important element of RPP, according to experts, was respiratory hazard evaluation. The average value of RPPI in the petrochemical plants was $49{\pm}15%$. The highest and lowest of CR among RPP elements were RPE selection and medical evaluation, respectively. Conclusion: None of studied petrochemical industries implemented RPP completely. This can lead to employees' overexposure to hazardous workplace air contaminants. Increasing awareness of employees and employers through training is suggested by this study to improve such conditions.

Tuberculosis Infection Control in Health-Care Facilities: Environmental Control and Personal Protection

  • Lee, Ji Yeon
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.79 no.4
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    • pp.234-240
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    • 2016
  • Transmission of tuberculosis (TB) is a recognized risk to patients and healthcare workers in healthcare settings. The literature review suggests that implementation of combination control measures reduces the risk of TB transmission. Guidelines suggest a three-level hierarchy of controls including administrative, environmental, and respiratory protection. Among environmental controls, installation of ventilation systems is a priority because ventilation reduces the number of infectious particles in the air. Natural ventilation is cost-effective but depends on climatic conditions. Supplemented intervention such as air-cleaning methods including high efficiency particulate air filtration and ultraviolet germicidal irradiation should be considered in areas where adequate ventilation is difficult to achieve. Personal protective equipment including particulate respirators provides additional benefit when administrative and environmental controls cannot assure protection.

Evaluation of Coarse Spray Vaccination with B$_1$ Strain against Newcastle Disease (뉴캣슬병 B$_1$생독백신의 분무접종 효과)

  • 김재흥;송창선;정상희;최정옥;김선중
    • Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.209-218
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    • 1991
  • An experiment was conducted to examine the efficacy of spray vaccination against Newcastle disease (ND). Four different coarse sprayers and four different diluents were compared in particle size, immune response and respiratory reaction. The smaller particle size of sprayer was, the better efficacy was and the more respiratory reactions were appeared. Of four diluents, antibody responses and resistance to challenge were higher with skim milk and gelatin, respectively .When day-old broiler chicks with maternal antibodies were vaccinated by coarse. sprayer B with B$_1$strain diluted in 1% skim milk, they showed 100% protection at two weeks of age and 50% from 4 to 8 weeks of age. Another group which boostered at 2 weeks of age by drinking water vaccination showed 100%, 70%, 50%, 40% protection at 2, 4, 6, 8 weeks of age, respectively. Although spray vaccination against ND in this experiments showed similar efficacy, compared to conventional methods, this method may not be appropriate in our field condition because of respiratory vaccinal reaction.

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Immunogenicity and Protective Efficacy of a Dual Subunit Vaccine Against Respiratory Syncytial Virus and Influenza Virus

  • Park, Min-Hee;Chang, Jun
    • IMMUNE NETWORK
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    • v.12 no.6
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    • pp.261-268
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    • 2012
  • Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza virus are the most significant pathogens causing respiratory tract diseases. Composite vaccines are useful in reducing the number of vaccination and confer protection against multiple infectious agents. In this study, we generated fusion of RSV G protein core fragment (amino acid residues 131 to 230) and influenza HA1 globular head domain (amino acid residues 62 to 284) as a dual vaccine candidate. This fusion protein, Gcf-HA1, was bacterially expressed, purified by metal resin affinity chromatography, and refolded in PBS. BALB/c mice were intranasally immunized with Gcf-HA1 in combination with a mucosal adjuvant, cholera toxin (CT). Both serum IgG and mucosal IgA responses specific to Gcf and HA1 were significantly increased in Gcf-HA1/CT-vaccinated mice. To determine the protective efficacy of Gcf-HA1/CT vaccine, immunized mice were challenged with RSV (A2 strain) or influenza virus (A/PR/8/34). Neither detectable viral replication nor pathology was observed in the lungs of the immune mice. These results demonstrate that immunity induced by intranasal Gcf-HA1/CT immunization confers complete protection against both RSV and homologous influenza virus infection, suggesting our Gcf-HA1 vaccine candidate could be further developed as a dual subunit vaccine against RSV and influenza virus.

Current progress on development of respiratory syncytial virus vaccine

  • Chang, Jun
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.44 no.4
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    • pp.232-237
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    • 2011
  • Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is a major cause of upper and lower respiratory tract illness in infants and young children worldwide. Despite its importance as a respiratory pathogen, there is currently no licensed vaccine for prophylaxis of HRSV infection. There are several hurdles complicating the development of a RSV vaccine: 1) incomplete immunity to natural RSV infection leading to frequent re-infection, 2) immature immune system and maternal antibodies of newborn infants who are the primary subject population, and 3) imbalanced Th2-biased immune responses to certain vaccine candidates leading to exacerbated pulmonary disease. After the failure of an initial trial featuring formalin-inactivated virus as a RSV vaccine, more careful and deliberate efforts have been made towards the development of safe and effective RSV vaccines without vaccine-enhanced disease. A wide array of RSV vaccine strategies is being developed, including live-attenuated viruses, protein subunit-based, and vector-based candidates. Though licensed vaccines remain to be developed, our great efforts will lead us to reach the goal of attaining safe and effective RSV vaccines in the near future.

Etiologic and Immunologic Characteristics of Thoroughbred Horses with Bacterial Infectious Upper Respiratory Disease at the Seoul Race Park

  • Ryu, Seung-Ho;Koo, Hye-Cheong;Park, Young-Kyung;Kim, Jun-Man;Jung, Woo-Kyung;Davis, William C.;Park, Yong-Ho;Lee, Chang-Woo
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.19 no.9
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    • pp.1041-1050
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    • 2009
  • Equine respiratory disease is a common cause of poor performance and training interruptions. The higher incidence rate of infectious upper respiratory disease (IURD) in thoroughbred racehorses at the Seoul Race Park coincided with the frequent stabling season, shorter stabling periods, and younger ages in this study. Incidence rates were also correlated with significantly lower proportions of cells expressing MHC class II-, CD2 antigen-, $CD4^+$- or $CD8^+$-T lymphocyte-, and B lymphocyte in IURD patients compared with healthy control groups in the summer and fall and in 2-and-3-year-old groups. The data suggested that movement and new environments may have resulted in immunosuppression and inappropriate responses to respiratory pathogens in IURD patients. The IURD incidence decreased with age, perhaps by the acquisition of immunity, and study results suggested that immunologic protection was associated with IURD, particularly in young thoroughbred racehorses. Streptococci isolates were identified in 11 of 72 IURD horses, and 3 of these isolates were identified as Streptococcus. equi subsp. equi. S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus was isolated from 2 of 23 IURD horses in the spring (8.7%), 5 of 23 in the summer (21.7%), and 1 of 6 in winter (16.7%). S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus (5%) was also identified in 3 of 61 isolates from clinically normal horses. Racetracks should implement anti-IURD protective measures by assessing the capacity of equine immunologic protection at the Park and by limiting the introduction of specific respiratory pathogens (such as S. equi subsp. equi) by preventing the access of infected but subclinical horses with a specified respiratory pathogen-free certification system prior to Park entry.

Motivational methods to increase in-field use of personal protective equipment (산업현장에서의 재해예방용 안전기구사용증대를 위한 방법)

  • 박민용
    • Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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    • 1993.10a
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    • pp.15-19
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    • 1993
  • Numerous motivational methodologies were analyzed with respect to improvement of the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the industrial field. Common industrial protective devices under consideration included hearing protection devices, respiratory protection devices, eye and face protection devices, etc. It was found that several of such methods could readily be implemented in the real world to protect workers from hazardous industrial sterssors, such as intense noises, toxic air contaminants, and other dangerous industrial objects (e,g., chemicals). Current research issues and recommendations for future research are addressed.

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The "Warm Zone" Cases: Environmental Monitoring Immediately Outside the Fire Incident Response Arena by Firefighters

  • Caban-Martinez, Alberto J.;Kropa, Bob;Niemczyk, Neal;Moore, Kevin J.;Baum, Jeramy;Solle, Natasha Schaefer;Sterling, David A.;Kobetz, Erin N.
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.9 no.3
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    • pp.352-355
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    • 2018
  • Hazardous work zones (i.e., hot, warm, and cold) are typically established by emergency response teams during hazardous materials (HAZMAT) calls but less consistently for fire responses to segment personnel and response activities in the immediate geographic area around the fire. Despite national guidelines, studies have documented the inconsistent use of respiratory protective equipment by firefighters at the fire scene. In this case-series report, we describe warm zone gas levels using multigas detectors across five independent fire incident responses all occurring in a large South Florida fire department. Multigas detector data collected at each fire response indicate the presence of sustained levels of volatile organic compounds in the "warm zone" of each fire event. These cases suggest that firefighters should not only implement strategies for multigas detector use within the warm zone but also include respiratory protection to provide adequate safety from toxic exposures in the warm zone.

Flagellin Administration Protects Respiratory Tract from Burkholderia cepacia Infection

  • Zgair, Ayaid Khadem
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.22 no.7
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    • pp.907-916
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    • 2012
  • Burkholderia cepacia is an important pathogen that often causes pneumonia in immunocompromised individuals. Here, it was demonstrated that the TLR5 agonist flagellin could locally activate innate immunity. This was characterized by rapid expressions of IL-$1{\beta}$, TNF-${\alpha}$, and iNOS mRNA and a delay in the expression of IL-10 mRNA. A significant elevation in the IL-$1{\beta}$, TNF-${\alpha}$, and nitric oxide levels was also noted. In the respiratory tract, flagellin induced neutrophil infiltration into the airways, which was observed by histopathological examination and confirmed by the neutrophil count and level of myeloperoxidase activity. This was concomitant with a high activity of alveolar macrophages that engulfed and killed B. cepacia in vitro. The flagellin mucosal treatment improved the B. cepacia clearance in the mouse lung. Thus, the present findings illustrate the profound stimulatory effect of flagellin on the lung mucosal innate immunity, a response that needs to be exploited therapeutically to prevent the development of respiratory tract infection by B. cepacia.