Abstract
BACKGROUND: Occupational exposure to inhalable aerosols and airborne particles in the food production industry is associated with an increased risk of respiratory diseases, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study aims to investigate the inflammatory potential of inhalable aerosols collected from various food production environments and work tasks by assessing the concentrations of cytokines using an in vitro assay. METHODS: The inflammatory response, as measured by the production of inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 1β (IL-1β), IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and IL-12, was determined using human macrophages derived from THP-1 monocytic cells. These cells were exposed to inhalable aerosol samples from 12 dry powder food processing plants. Cytokine concentrations were quantified using a Luminex assay. RESULTS: This study identified statistically significant variations in in vitro cytokine responses across different production types and work tasks, emphasizing the diverse inflammatory potential of workplace aerosols. Furthermore, a dose-dependent relationship was observed for TNF-α, IL-8, IL-2, and IL-1β, suggesting that aerosol mass plays a role in immune activation. After normalizing cytokine concentrations to aerosol mass, variations in the intrinsic potential of aerosols were observed, indicating that aerosols generated during dry powder food production have differing capacities to induce an inflammatory response. CONCLUSIONS: This study has demonstrated that the inflammatory potential of inhalable aerosols collected from various food production environments can be assessed by measuring cytokine concentrations using an in vitro assay. Although cytokine concentrations were generally low, weighing and mixing food ingredients, and environments like coffee, spice, and powdered consumer product production, and bakeries exhibited elevated concentrations of inflammatory cytokines, potentially indicating a higher risk for workers in these settings.