Tuesday, June 12, 10:45am–12:15pm, Arts and Administration Building, Room A1045
This is the second half of a double session. Please see Session 5C for part one.
This session follows on from the first international symposium on the topic organized by SafetyNet in Canada (2006) and subsequent symposia held at ICOH South Africa (2009), ODTS in Norway (2011) and ICOH Mexico (2012). It brings together researchers from various countries focusing their research on allergens and respiratory health among fishermen, seafarers and workers in the fishing and seafood processing industry.
Special areas of focus include: a) global trends in the fishing and seafood processing environment, work organisation and relevance to occupational exposures and health; b) epidemiology of occupational seafood associated allergy and asthma; c) characterisation of exposures to respiratory sensitisers in various occupational and geographical contexts; d) techniques for the identification of putative allergens; e) pathophysiological mechanisms involved; f) elucidation of exposure-response relationships.
The aim of the session is to share insights into investigations on the various aspects as outlined above, to deepen the understanding of the state of knowledge since the last symposium so as to develop better intervention strategies, identify new challenges and formulate future research directions.
6C.1 Sources and exposure to aerosolized marine biomolecules in Norwegian seafood industry – Berit Bang, Lisbeth Aasmoe, Malla Nabin, Marte Thomassen (Presentation slides).
Berit Bang and colleagues report on sources and exposure to aerosolized marine biomolecules producing inflammatory and immunological responses drawing from their studies in the Norwegian seafood industry. In vitro and structural molecular results will illustrate aspects of importance. The relevance of proteases in exposure mixtures will be emphasized. A sensitive assay for proteases in bioaerosol samples, based on protease activity, will be presented.
6C.2 The work environment in the Swedish fish processing industry and among fishermen – Anna Dahlman-Höglund, and E. Andersson. (Presentation slides).
Anna Dahlman-Höglundand colleagues characterize the working environment in Swedish fish processing, and fishing by baseline Questionaire sent to 1866 individuals, and measuring the exposure.
6C.3 Component Resolved Diagnosis in the detection and quantification of allergens at the workplace – Sandip Kamath, Mohamed Jeebhay, Thimo Ruether, Roni Nuagraha, Andreas Lopata
Andreas Lopata and colleagues report on the usefulness of component resolved diagnosis in the detection and quantification of allergens at the workplace to optimize interventions. The presentation will expand on the use of biotechnological tools to detect single allergen components to increase test sensitivity, analytical specificity and identification of health risk associated molecules.
6C.4 Exposure-response relationships for allergy and asthma associated with seafood exposures – Mohamed Jeebhay, Roslynn Baatjies, Andreas Lopata
Mohamed Jeebhay and colleagues present exposure-response models for seafood processing environments with specific reference to their investigations into the association between inhalation of pelagic fish (pilchard and anchovy) aerosols and work-related allergy and asthma in processors, and report on the extent to which host factors (atopy and smoking) modify this risk.