Factors promoting the exposure to bioaerosols among crop workers

Introduction. Agricultural workers are among the professional groups most at risk of developing acute or chronic respiratory problems. Despite this fact, the etiology of these occupational diseases is poorly known, even in important sectors of agriculture such as the crops sector. Cereals can be colonized by a large number of fungal species throughout the plants' growth, but also during grain storage. Some of these fungi deliver toxins that can have a serious impact on human health when they are ingested via wheat products. Although International and European legislation on contaminants in food, including mycotoxins, include measures to ensure protection of public health by setting down the maximum levels for certain contaminants, the risks associated with the inhalation of such molecules during grain handling remains poorly documented. Goal of study. This project's objective was to characterize worker exposure to pathogenic, irritative or allergenic microorganisms and to identify the abiotic or biotic factors that reduce the growth of these microorganisms in crops. Indeed, the proliferation of microorganisms on wheat is dependent on temperature, rainfall and human disturbance (e.g. usage of tillage, addition of fungicides). A change in the concentration of these microorganisms in the substrate will directly result in a change in the concentration of aerosolized particles of the same microorganisms. Therefore, the exposure of worker to bioaérosols will also change. The Vaud region of Switzerland is a perfect region for conduct such a project as weather conditions vary and agricultural land management programs are divers at a small geographic scale. Methods. Bioaerosols and wheat dust have been sampled during wheat harvesting of summer 2010 at 100 sites uniformly distributed in the Vaud region that are representative of the different agriculture practices. Personal exposure has been evaluated for different wheat related activities: harvesting, grain unload, baling straw, the cleaning of harvesters and silos. Aerosols have been sampled at a rate of 2L/min between 15 min to 4 hours (t) on a 5m PVC filter for estimating the total dust inhaled, on gelatine filter for the identification and quantification of molds, and on a 0.45um polycarbonate filter for endotoxin quantification. Altitude, temperature and annual average rainfall were considered for each site. The physical and chemical characteristics of soils were determined using the methods in effect at Sol Council (Nyon). Total dust has been quantified following NIOSH 0500 method. Reactive endotoxine activity has been determined with Limulus Amebocyte Lysate Assay. All molds have been identified by the pyrosequencing of ITS2 amplicons generated from bioaerosol or wheat dust genomic DNA. Results & Conclusions. Our results confirm the previous quantitative data on the worker exposure to wheat dust. In addition, they show that crop workers are systematically exposed to complex mixtures of allergens, irritants or cytotoxic components. The novelty of our study is the systematic detection of molds such as Fusarium - that is a mycotoxins producer - in the bioaerosols. The results are interpreted by taking in account the agriculture practice, the Phosphorus : Carbon : Nitrogen ratio of the soil, the altitude and the average of rainy days per year.

Federal Highway Administration Finding of No Significant Impact Collins Road NE (Highway 100) Cedar Rapids, Linn County, Iowa, December 17, 2009

The proposed project consists of improving approximately 2.6 miles of Collins Road NE (Highway 100) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The project extends from the intersection of Center Point Road to approximately 750 feet east of its intersection with 1st Avenue.

Iowa Comprehensive Highway Safety Plan, September 2006

In Iowa, hundreds of people die and thousands more are injured on our public roadways each year despite decades of efforts to end this su�ffering. Past safety e�efforts have resulted in Iowans bene�fiting from one of the best state roadway systems in the nation. Due to multi-agency e�efforts, Iowa has achieved 90 percent compliance with the state’s mandatory front seat belt use law, earned the nation’s second-lowest percent of alcohol involvement in fatal crashes and made safety gains in system-wide roadway design and operational improvements. Despite these ongoing e�efforts, the state’s annual average of 445 deaths and thousands of life-changing injuries is a tragic toll and an unacceptable public health epidemic in our state. To save more lives on our roadways, Iowans must be challenged to think �differently about lifesaving measures addressing young drivers, safety belts, and motorcycle helmet use and accept innovative designs such as roundabouts. Iowa must apply evidence-based strategies and create a safety culture that motivates all citizens to travel more responsibly. They must demand a lower level of tolerance for Iowa’s roadway deaths and injuries. The Iowa Comprehensive Highway Safety Plan (CHSP) engages diverse safety stakeholders and charts the course for this state, bringing to bear sound science and the power of shared community values to change the culture and achieve a standard of safer travel for our citizens. How many roadway deaths and injuries are too many? Iowa’s highway safety stakeholders believe that, “One death is one too many” and e�effective culture-changing policy and program strategies must be implemented to help reduce this death toll from an annual average of 445 to 400 by the year 2015.

A Transportation Safety Planning Tool for the City of Ames, August 2011

The historically-reactive approach to identifying safety problems and mitigating them involves selecting black spots or hot spots by ranking locations based on crash frequency and severity. The approach focuses mainly on the corridor level without taking the exposure rate (vehicle miles traveled) and socio-demographics information of the study area, which are very important in the transportation planning process, into consideration. A larger study analysis unit at the Transportation Analysis Zone (TAZ) level or the network planning level should be used to address the needs of development of the community in the future and incorporate safety into the long-range transportation planning process. In this study, existing planning tools (such as the PLANSAFE models presented in NCHRP Report 546) were evaluated for forecasting safety in small and medium-sized communities, particularly as related to changes in socio-demographics characteristics, traffic demand, road network, and countermeasures. The research also evaluated the applicability of the Empirical Bayes (EB) method to network-level analysis. In addition, application of the United States Road Assessment Program (usRAP) protocols at the local urban road network level was investigated. This research evaluated the applicability of these three methods for the City of Ames, Iowa. The outcome of this research is a systematic process and framework for considering road safety issues explicitly in the small and medium-sized community transportation planning process and for quantifying the safety impacts of new developments and policy programs. More specifically, quantitative safety may be incorporated into the planning process, through effective visualization and increased awareness of safety issues (usRAP), the identification of high-risk locations with potential for improvement, (usRAP maps and EB), countermeasures for high-risk locations (EB before and after study and PLANSAFE), and socio-economic and demographic induced changes at the planning-level (PLANSAFE).

Optimal Usage of De-Icing Chemicals when Scraping Ice, November 2003

One of the challenges that faces the winter maintainer is how much chemical to apply to the road under given conditions. Insufficient chemical can lead to the road surface becoming slick, and the road thus becoming unsafe. In all likelihood, additional applications will have to be made, requiring additional effort and use of resources. However, too much chemical can also be bad. While an excess of chemical will ensure (in most circumstances) that a safe road condition is achieved, it may also result in a substantial waste of chemical (with associated costs for this waste) and in ancillary damage to the road itself and to the surrounding environment. Ideally, one should apply what might be termed the “goldilocks” amount of chemical to the road: Not too much, and not too little, but just right. Of course the reality of winter maintenance makes achieving the “goldilocks” application rate somewhat of a fairy tale. In the midst of a severe storm, when conditions are poor and getting worse, the last thing on a plow operator’s mind is a minute adjustment in the amount of chemical being applied to the road. However, there may be considerable benefit and substantial savings to be achieved if chemical applications can be optimized to some degree, so that wastage is minimized without compromising safety. The goal of this study was to begin to develop such information through a series of laboratory studies in which the force needed to scrape ice from concrete blocks was measured, under a variety of chemical application conditions.

Tree and Brush Control For County Road Right-of-Way, Ocotober 2002

This manual summarizes the roadside tree and brush control methods used by all of Iowa's 99 counties. It is based on interviews conducted in Spring 2002 with county engineers, roadside managers and others. The target audience of this manual is the novice county engineer or roadside manager. Iowa law is nearly silent on roadside tree and brush control, so individual counties have been left to decide on the level of control they want to achieve and maintain. Different solutions have been developed but the goal of every county remains the same: to provide safe roads for the traveling public. Counties in eastern and southern Iowa appear to face the greatest brush control challenge. Most control efforts can be divided into two categories: mechanical and chemical. Mechanical control includes cutting tools and supporting equipment. A chain saw is the most widely used cutting tool. Tractor mounted boom mowers and brush cutters are used to prune miles of brush but have significant safety and aesthetic limitations and boom mowers are easily broken by inexperienced operators. The advent of tree shears and hydraulic thumbs offer unprecedented versatility. Bulldozers are often considered a method of last resort since they reduce large areas to bare ground. Any chipper that violently grabs brush should not be used. Chemical control is the application of herbicide to different parts of a plant: foliar spray is applied to leaves; basal bark spray is applied to the tree trunk; a cut stump treatment is applied to the cambium ring of a cut surface. There is reluctance by many to apply herbicide into the air due to drift concerns. One-third of Iowa counties do not use foliar spray. By contrast, several accepted control methods are directed toward the ground. Freshly cut stumps should be treated to prevent resprouting. Basal bark spray is highly effective in sensitive areas such as near houses. Interest in chemical control is slowly increasing as herbicides and application methods are refined. Fall burning, a third, distinctly separate technique is underused as a brush control method and can be effective if timed correctly. In all, control methods tend to reflect agricultural patterns in a county. The use of chain saws and foliar sprays tends to increase in counties where row crops predominate, and boom mowing tends to increase in counties where grassland predominates. For counties with light to moderate roadside brush, rotational maintenance is the key to effective control. The most comprehensive approach to control is to implement an integrated roadside vegetation management (IRVM) program. An IRVM program is usually directed by a Roadside Manager whose duties may be shared with another position. Funding for control programs comes from the Rural Services Basic portion of a county's budget. The average annual county brush control budget is about $76,000. That figure is thought not to include shared expenses such as fuel and buildings. Start up costs for an IRVM program are less if an existing control program is converted. In addition, IRVM budgets from three different northeastern Iowa counties are offered for comparison in this manual. The manual also includes a chapter on temporary traffic control in rural work zones, a summary of the Iowa Code as it relates to brush control, and rules on avoiding seasonal disturbance of the endangered Indiana bat. Appendices summarize survey and forest cover data, an equipment inventory, sample forms for record keeping, a sample brush control policy, a few legal opinions, a literature search, and a glossary.

Pavement Markings and Safety Final Report, November 2010

Previous research on pavement markings from a safety perspective tackled various issues such as pavement marking retroreflectivity variability, relationship between pavement marking retroreflectivity and driver visibility, or pavement marking improvements and safety. A recent research interest in this area has been to find a correlation between retroreflectivity and crashes, but a significant statistical relationship has not yet been found. This study investigates such a possible statistical relationship by analyzing five years of pavement marking retroreflectivity data collected by the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) on all state primary roads and corresponding crash and traffic data. This study developed a spatial-temporal database using measured retroreflectivity data to account for the deterioration of pavement markings over time along with statewide crash data to attempt to quantify a relationship between crash occurrence probability and pavement marking retroreflectivity. First, logistic regression analyses were done for the whole data set to find a statistical relationship between crash occurrence probability and identified variables, which are road type, line type, retroreflectivity, and traffic (vehicle miles traveled). The analysis looked into subsets of the data set such as road type, retroreflectivity measurement source, high crash routes, retroreflectivity range, and line types. Retroreflectivity was found to have a significant effect in crash occurrence probability for four data subsets—interstate, white edge line, yellow edge line, and yellow center line data. For white edge line and yellow center line data, crash occurrence probability was found to increase by decreasing values of retroreflectivity.

Impacts of Rural Development on Iowa’s Secondary Road Systems, TR-548, September 2010

Today, many of Iowa’s counties are experiencing an increase in rural development. Two specific types of development were focused on for this research: rural residential subdivisions and livestock production operations. Rural residential developments are primarily year round single-family homes, though some are vacation homes. Livestock production in Iowa includes hog, beef, and poultry facilities. These two types of rural development, while obviously very different in nature and incompatible with each other, share one important characteristic: They each generate substantial amounts of new traffic for Iowa’s extensive secondary road system. This research brings together economic, spatial, and legal analysis methods to address the impacts of rural development on the secondary road system and provide county engineers, county supervisors, and state legislators with guidance in addressing the challenges associated with this development.

Examining Driver Behavior in Response to Work Zone Interventions: A Driving Simulator Study, 2010

Construction zones pose a significant threat to both workers and drivers causing numerous injuries and deaths each year. Innovations in work zone safety could reduce these numbers. However, implementing work zone interventions before they are validated can undermine rather than enhance safety. The objective of this research is to demonstrate how driving simulators can be used to evaluate the effect of various work zone interventions on driver performance.

Improved health of hospitality workers after a Swiss cantonal smoking ban.

QUESTIONS UNDER STUDY: Hospitality workers are a population particularly at risk from the noxious effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). The Canton of Vaud, Switzerland banned smoking in public places in September 2009. This prospective study addresses the impact of the ban on the health of hospitality workers. METHODS: ETS exposure was evaluated using a passive sampling device that measures airborne nicotine; lung function was assessed by spirometry; health-related quality of life, ETS exposure symptoms and satisfaction were measured by questionnaire. RESULTS: 105 participants (smokers and non-smokers) were recruited initially and 66 were followed up after one year. ETS exposure was significantly lower after the ban. Hospitality workers had lower pre-ban forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) values than expected. FEV1 remained stable after the ban, with a near-significant increase in the subgroup of asthmatics only. FVC increased at one year follow-up from 90.42% to 93.05% (p = 0.02) in the entire cohort; women, non-smokers and older participants gained the greatest benefit. The health survey showed an increase in physical wellbeing after the ban, the greatest benefit being observed in non-smokers. ETS exposure symptoms were less frequent after the ban, especially red and irritated eyes and sneezing. The new law was judged useful and satisfactory by the vast majority of employees, including smokers. CONCLUSION: The recent cantonal ban on smoking in public places brought about an improvement in lung function, physical well-being and ETS symptoms of hospitality workers, including smokers.

2011 Road Use Tax Fund (RUTF) Study A report to the Iowa Legislature, per 2011 Iowa Code Section 307.31

The transportation system is in demand 24/7 and 365 days a year irrespective of neither the weather nor the conditions. Iowa’s transportation system is an integral and essential part of society serving commerce and daily functions of all Iowans across the state. A high quality transportation system serves as the artery for economic activity and, the condition of the infrastructure is a key element for our future growth opportunities. A key component of Iowa’s transportation system is the public roadway system owned and maintained by the state, cities and counties. In order to regularly re-evaluate the conditions of Iowa’s public roadway infrastructure and assess the ability of existing revenues to meet the needs of the system, the Iowa Department of Transportation’s 2006 Road Use Tax Fund (RUTF) report to the legislature included a recommendation that a study be conducted every five years. That recommendation was included in legislation adopted in 2007 and signed into law. The law specifically requires the following (2011 Iowa Code Section 307.31): •“The department shall periodically review the current revenue levels of the road use tax fund and the sufficiency of those revenues for the projected construction and maintenance needs of city, county, and state governments in the future. The department shall submit a written report to the general assembly regarding its findings by December 31 every five years, beginning in 2011. The report may include recommendations concerning funding levels needed to support the future mobility and accessibility for users of Iowa's public road system.” •“The department shall evaluate alternative funding sources for road maintenance and construction and report to the general assembly at least every five years on the advantages and disadvantages and the viability of alternative funding mechanisms.” Consistent with this requirement, the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) has prepared this study. Recognizing the importance of actively engaging with the public and transportation stakeholders in any discussion of public roadway conditions and needs, Governor Terry E. Branstad announced on March 8, 2011, the creation of, and appointments to, the Governor’s Transportation 2020 Citizen Advisory Commission (CAC). The CAC was tasked with assisting the Iowa DOT as they assess the condition of Iowa’s roadway system and evaluate current and future funding available to best address system needs. In particular the CAC was directed to gather input from the public and stakeholders regarding the condition of Iowa’s public roadway system, the impact of that system, whether additional funding is needed to maintain/improve the system, and, if so, what funding mechanisms ought to be considered. With this input, the CAC prepared a report and recommendations that were presented to Governor Branstad and the Iowa DOT in November 2011 for use in the development of this study. The CAC’s report is available at www.iowadot.gov/transportation2020/pdfs/CAC%20REPORT%20FINAL%20110211.pdf. The CAC’s report was developed utilizing analysis and information from the Iowa DOT. Therefore, the report forms the basis for this study and the two documents are very similar. Iowa is fortunate to have an extensive public roadway system that provides access to all areas of the state and facilitates the efficient movement of goods and people. However, it is also a tremendous challenge for the state, cities and counties to maintain and improve this system given flattening revenue, lost buying power, changing demands on the system, severe weather, and an aging system. This challenge didn’t appear overnight and for the last decade many studies have been completed to look into the situation and the legislature has taken significant action to begin addressing the situation. In addition, the Iowa DOT and Iowa’s cities and counties have worked jointly and independently to increase efficiency and streamline operations. All of these actions have been successful and resulted in significant changes; however, it is apparent much more needs to be done. A well-maintained, high-quality transportation system reduces transportation costs and provides consistent and reliable service. These are all factors that are critical in the evaluation companies undertake when deciding where to expand or locate new developments. The CAC and Iowa DOT heard from many Iowans that additional investment in Iowa’s roadway system is vital to support existing jobs and continued job creation in the state of Iowa. Beginning June 2011, the CAC met regularly to review material and discuss potential recommendations to address Iowa’s roadway funding challenges. This effort included extensive public outreach with meetings held in seven locations across Iowa and through a Transportation 2020 website hosted by the Iowa DOT (www.iowadot.gov/transportation2020). Over 500 people attended the public meetings held through the months of August and September, with 198 providing verbal or written comment at the meetings or through the website. Comments were received from a wide array of individuals. The public comments demonstrated overwhelming support for increased funding for Iowa’s roads. Through the public input process, several guiding principles were established to guide the development of recommendations. Those guiding principles are: • Additional revenues are restricted for road and bridge improvements only, like 95 percent of the current state road revenue is currently. This includes the fuel tax and registration fees. • State and local governments continue to streamline and become more efficient, both individually and by looking for ways to do things collectively. • User fee concept is preserved, where those who use the roads pay for them, including non¬residents. • Revenue-generating methods equitable across users. • Increase revenue generating mechanisms that are viable now but begin to implement and set the stage for longer-term solutions that bring equity and stability to road funding. • Continue Iowa’s long standing tradition of state roadway financing coming from pay-as-you-go financing. Iowa must not fall into the situation that other states are currently facing where the majority of their new program dollars are utilized to pay the debt service of past bonding. Based on the analysis of Iowa’s public roadway needs and revenue and the extensive work of the Governor’s Transportation 2020 Citizen Advisory Commission, the Iowa DOT has identified specific recommendations. The recommendations follow very closely the recommendations of the CAC (CAC recommendations from their report are repeated in Appendix B). Following is a summary of the recommendations which are fully documented beginning on page 21. 1. Through a combination of efficiency savings and increased revenue, a minimum of $215 million of revenue per year should be generated to meet Iowa’s critical roadway needs. 2. The Code of Iowa should be changed to require the study of the sufficiency of the state’s road funds to meet the road system’s needs every two years instead of every five years to coincide with the biennial legislative budget appropriation schedule. 3.Modify the current registration fee for electric vehicles to be based on weight and value using the same formula that applies to most passenger vehicles. 4.Consistent with existing Code of Iowa requirements, new funding should go to the TIME-21 Fund up to the cap ($225 million) and remaining new funding should be distributed consistent with the Road Use Tax Fund distribution formula. 5.The CAC recommended the Iowa DOT at least annually convene meetings with cities and counties to review the operation, maintenance and improvement of Iowa’s public roadway system to identify ways to jointly increase efficiency. In direct response to this recommendation, Governor Branstad directed the Iowa DOT to begin this effort immediately with a target of identifying $50 million of efficiency savings that can be captured from the over $1 billion of state revenue already provided to the Iowa DOT and Iowa’s cities and counties to administer, maintain and improve Iowa’s public roadway system. This would build upon past joint and individual actions that have reduced administrative costs and resulted in increased funding for improvement of Iowa’s public roadway system. Efficiency actions should be quantified, measured and reported to the public on a regular basis. 6.By June 30, 2012, Iowa DOT should complete a study of vehicles and equipment that use Iowa’s public roadway system but pay no user fees or substantially lower user fees than other vehicles and equipment.

Roadway Lighting and Safety: Phase II – Monitoring Quality, Durability and Efficiency, November 2011

This Phase II project follows a previous project titled Strategies to Address Nighttime Crashes at Rural, Unsignalized Intersections. Based on the results of the previous study, the Iowa Highway Research Board (IHRB) indicated interest in pursuing further research to address the quality of lighting, rather than just the presence of light, with respect to safety. The research team supplemented the literature review from the previous study, specifically addressing lighting level in terms of measurement, the relationship between light levels and safety, and lamp durability and efficiency. The Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE) teamed with a national research leader in roadway lighting, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) to collect the data. An integral instrument to the data collection efforts was the creation of the Roadway Monitoring System (RMS). The RMS allowed the research team to collect lighting data and approach information for each rural intersection identified in the previous phase. After data cleanup, the final data set contained illuminance data for 101 lighted intersections (of 137 lighted intersections in the first study). Data analysis included a robust statistical analysis based on Bayesian techniques. Average illuminance, average glare, and average uniformity ratio values were used to classify quality of lighting at the intersections.

Low Water Stream Crossing: Design and Construction Recommendations, December 2001

Most counties have bridges that are no longer adequate, and are faced with large capital expenditure for replacement structures of the same size. In this regard, low water stream crossings (LWSCs) can provide an acceptable, low cost alternative to bridges and culverts on low volume and reduced maintenance level roads. In addition to providing a low cost option for stream crossings, LWSCs have been designed to have the additional benefit of stream bed stabilization. Considerable information on the current status of LWSCs in Iowa, along with insight of needs for design assistance, was gained from a survey of county engineers that was conducted as part of this research (Appendix A). Copies of responses and analysis are included in Appendix B. This document provides guidelines for the design of LWSCs. There are three common types of LWSCs: unvented ford, vented ford with pipes, and low water bridges. Selection among these depends on stream geometry, discharge, importance of road, and budget availability. To minimize exposure to tort liability, local agencies using low water stream crossings should consider adopting reasonable selection and design criteria and certainly provide adequate warning of these structures to road users. The design recommendations included in this report for LWSCs provide guidelines and suggestions for local agency reference. Several design examples of design calculations are included in Appendix E.

Highway Relocation: U.S. 30/Lincoln Highway film production, 1960

The film depicts period traffic congestion, sharp and winding sections of road, steep hills making trucks slow to a crawl, and dangerous vehicle and pedestrian crossings, all important reasons why highway design and safety improvements, and highway relocation were needed. In fact, when the film was produced, U.S. 30 or the Lincoln Highway was the busiest primary road in Iowa; and the section between State Center and Boone was deemed “critical,” meaning it was considered dangerous by the ISHC’s Efficiency Standards.

Indicateurs sécurité en obstétrique : une étude Delphi [Patient safety indicators for obstetrics: a Delphi based study]

OBJECTIVE: Clinical indicators are increasingly used to assess safety of patient care. In obstetrics, only a few indicators have been validated to date and none is used across specialties. The purpose of this study was to identify and assess for face and content validity a group of safety indicators that could be used by anaesthetists, obstetricians and neonatologists involved in labour and delivery units. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We first conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify potential measures. Indicators were then validated by a panel of 30 experts representing all specialties working in labour and delivery units. We used the Delphi method, an iterative questionnaire-based consensus seeking technique. Experts determined on a 7-point Likert scale (1=most representative/7=less representative) the soundness of each indicator as a measure of safety and their possible association with errors and complications caused by medical management. RESULTS: We identified 44 potential clinical indicators from the literature. Following the Delphi process, 13 indicators were considered as highly representative of safety during obstetrical care (mean score</=2.3). Experts ranked 6 of these indicators as being strongly associated to potential errors and complications. CONCLUSIONS: We identified and validated for face and content, a group of six clinical indicators to measure potentially preventable iatrogenic complications in labour and delivery units.