Health Hazards of Storing, Handling, and Shipping Grain

Adverse health effects from exposure to grain dust were first reported in 1713, when Bernardino Ramazzini noted grain dust irritated the throats, eyes, skin, and lungs of grain worker (Ramazzini 1713). Workers may be exposed to grain dust during farming operations or while working at grain elevators and flour, feed, and seed mills. Exposure to grain dust between these facilities. Present-day grain workers have been reported to exhibit both pulmonary effects (including cough, dyspnea, wheezing, asthma, chronic bronchitis, farmer's lung, chronic airway obstruction, mycotoxicosis, and allergic alveolitis) and nonpulmonary effects (including conjunctivitis, rhinits, grain fever, and dermatitis).

This addresses the adverse health effects of human exposure to grain dust. A thorough search of the literature has identified three groups of studies specifically dealing with this type of occupational exposure.