FLOUR DUST EXPOSURE VARIABILITY IN FLOUR MILLS AND BAKERIES

As part of a longitudinal study to explore the exposure-response relat ionship between flour dust exposure and work-related symptoms and skin sensitivity the authors formed exposure groups and estimated various components of variability. This paper describes the between-exposure g roup, the between-worker and the within-worker variation of personal f lour dust exposure in bakeries, flour mills and packing stations. In t otal 346 samples were collected in 13 exposure groups. The geometric m eans of the exposure groups ranged from 0.3 up to 9.0 mg m(-3). Betwee n-worker variances within exposure groupings were less than the overal l between-worker component although substantial differences in exposur e between workers remained in some exposure groups. Overall the larges t variance component was the between-exposure group component followed by the considerably smaller between-worker and within-worker componen ts.