Molecular biology methods in assessing occupational exposure to harmful biological agents

Abstract

All employers are responsible for ensuring safe working conditions for employees in their workplace. It is necessary to accurately identify and eliminate all hazards that are possible to remove and to ensure proper collective and personal protective measures. Among occupational hazards, biological agents are one of the most important. They are considered as the most frequent cause of occupational diseases in Poland. They can affect human body and cause various adverse health outcomes such as allergies, irritations, infections, toxicoses or even a cancer. Among them we can distinguish harmful microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi), human parasites and biologically active chemical compounds produced by microorganisms (e.g., fungal mycotoxins). Currently, the most frequent used laboratory procedures to identify biological hazards are culture-based, microscopic and biochemical methods. Despite their unquestionable advantages and widespread presence, these techniques have also important limitations. They only enable identification of microorganisms which are viable and capable to grow in laboratory conditions. As the studies have shown, such microorganisms constitute (in extreme cases) merely 1% of their population present in the environment. This paper presents an overview of molecular biology methods (based on DNA analysis) which allow the qualitative and quantitative identification of microorganisms, determining their biochemical features and enabling to obtain their environmental species profile without the need for their culturing in laboratory conditions. Application of these methods provides more accurate identification of microorganisms present in occupational environment, allowing more precise analysis of potential health risks derived from exposure to harmful biological agents.