Epidemiological study on the health hazard of castor bean dust.

ABSTRACT

Castor bean is one of the agricultural cash crops of economic importance, the health hazards of castor bean dust that recently made headlines in the mass media alerted many governmental agencies concerned to take action. The castor oil mill started operation in 1979, at Phra Pradaeng, Samut Prokan 50 km east of Bangkok. A few months after the operation, people who lived within 2 kilometres of the mill began to develop respiratory ailments cough, sneezing, headache, nasal blockage, wheezing, violent attacks of asthma. An epidemiological survey carried out showed that castor bean dust was the major health hazards in the villages within 2 kilometres of the castor oil mill in Phra Pradaeng. The patients suffering from asthma due to castor bean had no further attacks after closure of the factory. The study indicated that to minimize the health hazard problem, the castor bean oil mill should improve its method of collecting the castor bean pomace.