The work environment in the Swedish fish processing industry

Introduction/Aim: During the past few years we have performed a study in the Swedish fish processing industry to characterize the working environment by exposure measurements and questionnaires.   Methods: A questionnaire sent to workers from 10 fish processing companies in Sweden to obtain information about working conditions and work-related health problems was answered by 394/916 fish processing workers. In a herring plant, different particle fractions were measured. Airborne herring parvalbumin allergen levels were sampled on filters using personal and stationary pumps.    Results: The workers had a mean employment time of 14.8 years. Herring was handled by 68% of workers, followed by cod (35%) and salmon (31%). The work was considered to be noisy by 59% of respondents. There were 22% of workers who worked daily with filleting of fish but only 4% involved in slaughtering activities. In identifying high risk aerosol activities, 41% of workers used a high pressure sprayer at work, 15% used it every day, for a mean period of 47 minutes/day. The exposure to aerosols varied with the use of high pressure sprayer or hose with the sprayer producing the highest exposures. Most of the aerosols were <1 micron in both contexts. The concentration of herring parvalbumin allergen was 7-fold higher (p=0.001) in the inspection area or the filleting machines compared to the packing and loading areas outside the processing area.   Discussion/Conclusion: Herring seems to be the most commonly processed fish in Sweden. The fish processing environment is noisy and wet. High levels of bioaerosols are generated by the machines as well as by cleaning activities. It is important to reduce the aerosols by ventilation and engineering improvements of the filleting machines as well as through providing information to workers on how to reduce aerosol production.