Abstract
There is an increasingly high suspicion of occupational health diseases amongst workers in sawmill factories. Hence this study aimed to determine the microbial diversity in some sawmill factories in Okada, Edo State, Nigeria to evaluate potential implications of the factory’s processing area on the health of the workers and wood merchants. Bacteria and fungi count in the bioaerosols within the processing area of each factory was performed with the passive air sampling technique. While in the sawdust samples, microbial counts were carried out with the pour plate technique. Identification of the microbes was performed with macroscopic and microscopic examinations as well as standard phenotypic tests. Mean total viable count (TVC) and total fungi count (TFC) of bioaerosols in the air within the processing area of the sawmill factories were found to be greater than 4162.99 CFU/m3 while mean total coliform count (TCC) was reported as 756.28 CFU/m3. Fisher (F) one-way ANOVA test of the TVC and TCC dataset of bioaerosols from the four sawmill factories indicated no significant difference (p = 0.77 and 0.83 for TVC and TFC respectively) in the mean TVC and TFC of the bioaerosols. Bacterial (Micrococcus, Staphylococcus, Bacillus, Klebsiella and Serratia) and fungal (Saccharomyces, Aspergillus, Cladosporium and Penicillium) species were isolated from the bioaerosols and sawdust samples. Results of this study indicated that workers in the sawmill factories and other wood merchants who visit sawmill processing area are most likely exposed to airborne contaminants that may cause occupational diseases such as ophthalmic irritations and dermatitis. Hence it is recommended that sawmill workers and other visitors wear personal protective gadgets in the processing area of the sawmill factories.
Highlights
Sawmill factories generate large quantities of organic dust (Demers et al, 2000; Straumfors et al, 2018) that disperses into air and has been found to pose a high risk of occupational diseases such as asthma, frequent headaches, chronic bronchitis, phlegm, nasal symptoms and ophthalmic irritations (Demers et al, 1997; Alwis et al, 1999; Idu et al, 2019)
Sterile duplicate nutrient agar (NA), MacConkey agar (MA) and Sabourad’s dextrose agar (SDA) Petri dishes held at a height of one meter above the floor of the processing area and one meter away from any obstacle in the processing area were exposed to air for one hour to enable organic dust that is suspended in the air to settle on the Petri dishes
Mean total viable count (TVC) and total fungi count (TFC) of bioaerosols in the air within processing area of the factories were found to be greater than 4162.99 CFU/m3; while in the sawdust, mean TVC was recorded as 2150000 colony-forming units per gram (CFU/g) and mean TFC as 92500 CFU/g
Summary
Sawmill factories generate large quantities of organic dust (Demers et al, 2000; Straumfors et al, 2018) that disperses into air and has been found to pose a high risk of occupational diseases such as asthma, frequent headaches, chronic bronchitis, phlegm, nasal symptoms and ophthalmic irritations (Demers et al, 1997; Alwis et al, 1999; Idu et al, 2019). The airborne dust is often associated with microorganisms, referred to as bioaerosols (Sawane and Sawane, 2017), which may cause a myriad of adverse health effects on the workers and wood merchants. Micrococcus, Staphylococcus, Klebsiella, Aerococcus, Moraxella, Sphingmonas, Bacillus, Enterobacter, Aspergillus, Cladosporium and Penicillium (Oppliger et al, 2005; Park et al, 2010; Baranu and Edmund, 2019; Idu et al, 2019). This is because before processing the wood, it is stored outside the factory premises thereby creating a favorable environment for the propagation of these microorganisms (Oppliger et al, 2005). Occupational health problems associated with bioaerosols generated from sawdust in sawmill factories situated in Switzerland have been reported (Oppliger et al, 2005). This study was carried out to determine the microbial diversity in some sawmill factories in Okada, Edo State, Nigeria with a view to evaluate potential implications of the factory’s processing area on the health of the workers and wood merchants
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