Details - Public Health Image Library(PHIL)

ID#:

9537

Caption:

This October 1951 photograph was provided by the Center for Disease Control's (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The image depicted an Oklahoma farm worker in the process of unloading grain from an overhead shoot, and was filling a bin, or grain wagon beneath. Of importance, was the fact that the farmer was not wearing any respiratory protective devices, like a filtered breathing mask. Grain dust is given off by harvested and stored grain crops like corn. It is subsequently liberated during the transfer processed prior to shipping. The dust, which billows up, and is sometimes inhaled by farm workers during transfer, can carry high amounts of allergens, fungi, insects, and pesticides. Inhalation of certain molds can cause a potentially fatal disease known as farmer’s lung, or extrinsic allergic alveolitis, as well as hypersensitivity pneumonitis.