CSU to research dairy worker illnesses with $1M grant

FORT COLLINS – Colorado State University researchers are using a nearly $1 million federal grant to find ways to protect dairy workers’ health.

Dairies are dusty places, and dairy workers are at heightened risk of developing respiratory ailments because of particles inhaled on the job.

Leading the research project is CSU’s High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety. The center is examining the reasons that dairy workers are susceptible to asthma, chronic bronchitis and decreased lung function — and what can be done to decrease the risk.

The three-year study, headed by Stephen Reynolds, a CSU professor and director of the…