[MCOH-EH] [EXTERNAL] Allergen testing

[hudson.warner at gmail.com]

Definitely need to do better at our animal lab research institutions in this
area.  Watch of more in upcoming JOEM.  And agree Michael, much more work is
needed and a team effort required. Warner

 

From: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh-bounces at mylist.net> On Behalf Of Hodgson, Michael -
OSHA via MCOH-EH
Sent: Thursday, April 6, 2023 5:02 AM
To: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh at mylist.net>
Cc: Hodgson, Michael - OSHA <Hodgson.Michael at dol.gov>; Martin, William E
<Martin.William.E at dol.gov>
Subject: Re: [MCOH-EH] [EXTERNAL] Allergen testing

 

Hi, all

Cc'ed here is Bill Martin, and occupational medicine resident from Duke
rotating through OSHA. He recently presented a follow-up survey that he
completed with Dr. Stave on the current state of affairs in animal research
facilities.  They completed a follow-up survey to what Dr. States had done
some years ago. The presentation led to a lengthy discussion on what we know
about engineering design and operations and maintenance in animal labs.  And
then there's the whole work practices and PPE issue.  Without thinking about
those, our discussion went here, "sampling" isn't so useful. People will
generally remember that predictors of sensitization, i.e., peak exposures,
co-exposures to endotoxin, and the presence of irritants such as ammonia
likely all influence "acceptability" of antigen levels.

 

He and I discussed whether it was possible for this group, or this group
overlapping with Phil Harber's academic safety and health text, to develop
some set of categories that everyone could start classifying and using.

 

From: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh-bounces+hodgson.michael=dol.gov at mylist.net
<mailto:mcoh-eh-bounces+hodgson.michael=dol.gov at mylist.net> > On Behalf Of
Jakub Furmaga via MCOH-EH
Sent: Tuesday, April 4, 2023 5:36 PM
To: 'MCOH-EH' <mcoh-eh at mylist.net <mailto:mcoh-eh at mylist.net> >
Cc: Jakub Furmaga <jfurmaga at me.com <mailto:jfurmaga at me.com> >
Subject: Re: [MCOH-EH] [EXTERNAL] Allergen testing

 


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Thank you for the responses. 

 

AAALAC did not ask for allergen testing, they just asked what respiratory
protection we were providing to our animal care workers. Unfortunately, as
part of the report we included some measured allergen concentrations which
prompted questions about how the testing was done, and what reference
numbers we used (I know, we totally walked into that one). We did not have
great answers which is why I wanted to see what everyone else is doing. 

 

Jakub

 

On Apr 3, 2023, at 7:05 PM, hudson.warner at gmail.com
<mailto:hudson.warner at gmail.com>  wrote:

 

 

While at UCLA we did have the campus CIH do a study of the animal lab areas

to see where the highest levels of rat and mouse protein in air were found,

really to guide improvements in use of better practices to reduce said

antigen exposure not to look at the levels as a cutoff although some were at

the old level of well above 5ng/cubic meter by a lot; cage changing and cage

washing areas. The rest were well below. I understand the 5 ng level is no

longer considered to be a threshold and never had solid data behind it to

begin with; so while lower seems better; there may not be a no sensitizing

level or dose but this was but 10 years ago when we did this study and it

did result in improvements in those areas identified. Warner

 

-----Original Message-----

From: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh-bounces at mylist.net
<mailto:mcoh-eh-bounces at mylist.net> > On Behalf Of Swift, Melanie D.,

M.D., M.P.H. via MCOH-EH

Sent: Monday, April 3, 2023 7:27 AM

To: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh at mylist.net <mailto:mcoh-eh at mylist.net> >

Cc: Swift, Melanie D., M.D., M.P.H. <Swift.Melanie at mayo.edu
<mailto:Swift.Melanie at mayo.edu> >

Subject: Re: [MCOH-EH] [EXTERNAL] Allergen testing

 

Jakub,

Our safety colleagues recently looked into this and did a fairly deep dive.

My understanding is that air sampling for animal allergens is really not yet

ready for practice, but is more of a research tool at this point. Special

equipment is required and there are no standards or norms, so it would be a

little like doing air quality testing for mold spores without having an

outdoor control or comparison test. You can do particulate sampling as a

proxy of sorts, which is more standard and I think there are some reference

values for dust levels.

 

Out of curiosity, who is asking you to do air sampling for allergens? If

AAALAC is starting to request this, I'd be concerned about the potential

impact of that for other institutions.

Best,

Melanie

 

-----Original Message-----

From: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh-bounces at mylist.net
<mailto:mcoh-eh-bounces at mylist.net> > On Behalf Of Jakub Furmaga via

MCOH-EH

Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2023 2:30 PM

To: mcoh-eh at mylist.net <mailto:mcoh-eh at mylist.net> 

Cc: Jakub Furmaga <jfurmaga at me.com <mailto:jfurmaga at me.com> >

Subject: [EXTERNAL] [MCOH-EH] Allergen testing

 

I work at a large academic medical center that has several animal research

labs. We were recently asked to do allergen air testing/monitoring, and

wanted to see if anyone here has experience with this. If so, which

allergens do you test and what concentrations do you use. Thank you. 

 

Jakub

 

Jakub Furmaga, MD

Faculty in Medical Toxicology 

Medical Director of Occupational Health

UT Southwestern

 

 

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