Department of Public Health, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
North Carolina Agromedicine Institute, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
J Occup Environ Hyg. 2023 Dec;20(12):633-645. doi: 10.1080/15459624.2023.2247457. Epub 2023 Aug 15.
Swine meat provides an essential global food source. Due to economies of scale, modern U.S. swine production primarily occurs indoors to maintain an optimal environment across the stages of swine production. Indoor concentrations of dust and contaminant gases in swine production buildings increase in the winter months due to reduced ventilation to optimal building temperature. In this study, an engineering control technology designed to recirculate the air in a swine farrowing room through a mobile air handling unit containing high-efficiency particulate filters was presented. A mobile solution could be easily deployed as an intervention method if an infectious disease outbreak occurs at a swine operation. The performance of this control technology was evaluated following deployment in a production farrowing barn for a period of 6 weeks during the winter in the Midwestern United States. Contaminant concentrations of inhalable dust, respirable dust, and carbon dioxide were measured in the room treated by the prototype system and compared to contaminant concentrations measured in an untreated "control" room. Over 6 weeks, the mean inhalable and respirable dust concentrations observed during the study period for the "treatment" room were 2.61 and 0.14 mg/m, respectively, compared to 3.51 and 0.25 mg/m, respectively, for the control room. The mobile recirculating ventilation system, operating at a flow rate of 45 m/min (5 room air exchanges per hour), reduced the inhalable dust by 25% and respirable dust by 48% as measured with a real-time aerosol monitor, when compared to the control room. In addition, no concentration differences in carbon dioxide and relative humidity between the treatment and the control rooms were observed. Inhalable and respirable concentrations of dust were significantly reduced ( = 0.001), which demonstrates an essential improvement of the air quality that may prove beneficial to reduce the burden of disease among both workers and animals.
猪肉是全球重要的食物来源之一。由于规模经济效应，现代美国的生猪生产主要在室内进行，以维持生猪生产各个阶段的最佳环境。由于冬季为了保持最佳的建筑温度而减少通风，室内的灰尘和污染物气体浓度在生猪生产建筑中增加。在这项研究中，介绍了一种工程控制技术，该技术旨在通过包含高效微粒过滤器的移动空气处理单元将分娩室的空气在室内循环。如果生猪养殖场发生传染病疫情，可以将这种移动解决方案作为一种干预方法轻松部署。该控制技术在美国中西部的冬季，在生产分娩舍中部署 6 周后，对其性能进行了评估。在原型系统处理的房间中测量了可吸入粉尘、呼吸性粉尘和二氧化碳的污染物浓度，并与未经处理的“对照”房间中测量的污染物浓度进行了比较。在 6 周的时间里，在研究期间，“处理”房间的可吸入和呼吸性粉尘的平均浓度分别为 2.61 和 0.14mg/m，而对照房间分别为 3.51 和 0.25mg/m。与对照房间相比，以 45m/min（每小时 5 次室内空气交换）的流量运行的移动再循环通风系统将实时气溶胶监测仪测量的可吸入粉尘减少了 25%，将呼吸性粉尘减少了 48%。此外，在处理室和对照室之间未观察到二氧化碳和相对湿度的浓度差异。可吸入和呼吸性粉尘浓度显著降低（ = 0.001），这表明空气质量得到了重要改善，这可能有助于减轻工人和动物的疾病负担。
