Risk factors at work in the bakery

Overview

The baking industry is a significant field of food production. The paper summarizes risk factors of working environment in a particular bakery and describe the process of gaining background documents for the categorization of the work place. It presents a review of occupational diseases in food industry and particular cases of diseases developed at the work place under the supervision.

Employees of bakeries are exposed to a number of risk factors. The most significant is the exposure of rye and wheat flour – dusts with irritating and allergy causing effects. Warm environment, excessive load of muscle groups of upper extremities and work at night are other occupational risk factors. A systematic follow up of all factors of working environment and working conditions from the perspective of their negative impact on health of employees forms the basis for risk assessment in the working environment. Methods of measuring particular factors and criteria for evaluation of findings were developed for categorization of working positions. The dust load is categorized in relation to an acceptable exposure limit (AEL) which is defined according to the dust origin; the AEL value for flour dust for eight hours working shift is 4 mg/m3. Acceptable exposure limits exceeded the given norm during the first measurement. The measures were taken to lower the concentration of flour dust in the working environment in collaboration with an employer, organization of protection of public health, workers of laboratories of health institutes and physicians providing occupational medical services so that AEL is no more exceeded. Lowering concentrations of dust in working environment is a significant preventive measure with a positive impact on health of employees. The role of an occupational medical service in prevention of professional diseases is discussed.

Key words:
occuaptional medical care, flour dust, categorization, acceptable exposure limit