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

 

On Apr 3, 2023, at 7:05 PM, hudson.warner@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@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@mylist.net>

Cc: Swift, Melanie D., M.D., M.P.H. <Swift.Melanie@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@mylist.net> On Behalf Of Jakub Furmaga via

MCOH-EH

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

Cc: Jakub Furmaga <jfurmaga@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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The MCOH-EH List has always been moderated by members of the ACOEM Medical Center Occupational Health Section. It is currently moderated by Joe Fanucchi MD FACOEM.

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