Life on the farm may not be so healthy

Life on the farm may not be so healthy

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Farm workers seem to have an elevated risk of developing a serious lung condition more typically seen in smokers, a study has shown.

Austrian researchers found that among more than 1000 adults who underwent tests of lung function, farmers were more likely than those with other occupations to show signs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

COPD is the collective term for emphysema and chronic bronchitis, progressive diseases of the airways most commonly associated with smoking. While smoking is the major risk factor for COPD, non-smokers can also develop it.

The new findings suggest that farming "should be considered a risk factor" for COPD, the study authors report in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

It's not clear what particular aspects of farming might raise the risk of COPD, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Bernd Lamprecht of Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg.

However, farming has been linked to other health consequences, including higher risks of asthma and lung cancer, possibly due to pesticides or other chemicals.

In addition, Lamprecht's team writes, farmers consistently inhale "agricultural dusts," which consist of organic materials from animal and plant sources as well as inorganic materials in soil that can cause inflammation in the airways.

The study included 1258 men and women who underwent spirometry to test their lung function. Twenty-three percent reported ever working on a farm for three months or longer.

The lung function tests found that 30 percent of those farm workers had at least mild COPD, versus 22 percent of non-farmers. Among study participants who'd never smoked, one-quarter of farmers had COPD, compared with 16 percent of those in other occupations.

The study did not, however, look at the types of potentially hazardous on-the-job exposures that participants had. "Therefore," Lamprecht and his colleagues write, "we cannot even speculate on the causative inhalable agents in agriculture."

Nonetheless, they add, "our data confirm the urgent need for further investigation."

SOURCE: American Journal of Industrial Medicine, June 2007.