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@mylist.net> On Behalf Of Hodgson, Michael - OSHA via MCOH-EH
Sent: Thursday, April 6, 2023 5:02 AM
To: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh@mylist.net>
Cc: Hodgson, Michael - OSHA <Hodgson.Michael@dol.gov>; Martin, William E <Martin.William.E@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@mylist.net> On Behalf Of Jakub Furmaga via MCOH-EH
Sent: Tuesday, April 4, 2023 5:36 PM
To: 'MCOH-EH' <mcoh-eh@mylist.net>
Cc: Jakub Furmaga <jfurmaga@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