Fungi as an Occupational Health Hazard in Seasoned-Food-Industry Workers

In recent years, the survey of mould sporesconcentration in working environments, where workersspend many hours, acquired remarkable importancebecause of the spread of disease caused by fungi.On this basis, the aim of this research was toevaluate the level of environmental fungal pollutionin a food industry producing dry sausage and dry-cured ham.We also studied the occurrence of fungal species inthe upper respiratory tract of the workers, to comparewith species found in the working environment.Our survey has pointed out a considerable fungalpollution in most of the environments sampled, withthe presence of the same species found in the upperrespiratory tract of the workers.The data obtained in our survey have revealed that theenvironments sampled can represent a possible healthrisk factor for workers.