Acute symptoms in coffee workers

Processing of green coffee before export, as carried out in Sri Lanka, is a very dusty process. Thirty-eight workers, who were exposed to coffee dust intermittently, were studied. They developed acute symptoms referrable to the eyes, nostrils and respiratory tract. Cough (84.2%), sputum (76.3%), sneezing (73.7%), difficulty in breathing (63.2%) and running nose (55.3%) were the commonest symptoms. Of the workers 10.5% had a wheeze. These symptoms lasted only during the hours that workers were exposed to the dust, and subsided on returning home after the day's work.