Effects in the eyes caused by exposure to office dust

Authors: Mølhave, L.¹; Kjærgaard, S. K.¹; Attermann, J.²

Source: Indoor Air, Volume 12, Number 3, September 2002 , pp. 165-174(10)

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Abstract:

This Danish Office Dust Experiment compares the responses of 24 normal non-sensitive adult subjects to exposure to normal office dust in the air at 136 and 390 μg/m³ (median) and to their responses in clean air. The exposure duration was 5 1/4 h in a climate chamber under controlled conditions. The dust had no major identifiable specific reactive compounds. The overall conclusion is that healthy subjects without any hypersensitive reactions seem to respond to exposure to the house dust. The effects observed were all found in interaction with response modifying factors. The effects were a decrease in inflammatory cells in tear fluids, increased epithelium defects, and a decrease in break-up time. No effect was seen on eye reddening, or eye sensitivity to CO₂. As no specific hypotheses could be specified before the study for the observed interactions, no definitive conclusions can be made. Furthermore, it seemed that there was no consistency in the interacting factors after the exposure and the next morning. A tentative analysis of the effects of the importance of personal characteristics showed that only a minority within the subject group may respond to the exposure. However, no common set of sensitivity measures could be defined for these responders.

Keywords: Airborne particulates; Cells in tear liquid; Eye epithelium damage; Tear film stability; Foam formation in eyes

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0668.2002.01105.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, 2: Department of Biostatistics, The University of Aarhus, Aarhus C, Denmark

Publication date: 2002-09-01