Should I really be concerned about airborne gluten baking flour?

[Aaron2018]

I have celiac disease and have always wondered if I should be concerned about airborne gluten baking flour. I work at a grocery store as a grocery clerk and am often putting out gluten baking flour, when I put out gluten baking flour I use gloves. When I am at home my family rarely uses gluten baking flour, but when they do they try to use it when I am not home. Should I be concerned about airborne gluten baking flour? Should I also be concerned about airborne gluten baking flour at work? 

[Ardent Ape]

I made an account just to give you my anecdotal answer. Yes, you should be concerned about it. If any (which it will) flour gets into the air while moving the bag around, that’s a potential for it to get into your system.  Will it cause you personally problems or get into your body every time? That’s hard to say  

I worked at a health food store briefly where they made their own baked goods from scratch. Within two weeks I had significant reactions I never baked anything myself but I had to clean the bowl of the Hobart occasionally.  When the owner did make things there was flour all of the place too. I thought it couldn’t be an issue unless I ate it but I was quite wrong. I even stopped actually eating from the ‘gluten free’ salad bar they had to see if it was cross contaminated (which it likely was) but I still got reactions and it kept getting worse. Eventually I fell ill with something that felt like a head cold but none of my co workers were or got sick being in close vicinity to me so I’m guessing my immune system was weakened. After a bit over a month and many search engine queries I had to leave the job.

I don’t go into pizzerias or bakery shops anymore. I think I’m pretty sensitive personally but my dad who is also celiac doesn’t have symptoms when he’s in a bakery or eats a gluten free pizza at a pizzeria but I would guess he still has the autoimmune reaction without major symptoms. In general my dad is asymptomatic the only reason he found out was because he didn’t absorb vitamins well after his doctor was trying to up his vitamin d levels they found out it was celiac’s causing his poor absorption but he never claimed to feel ‘bad’. I however get very itchy, abdominal pain, loose stools, bloating, and uncomfortable amounts of gas.

I’m no expert but this is my experience and the information I have gathered. The best way to know would be getting testing done before (ideally completely clean) and after handling flour. There have only been a relatively small number of studies checking about airborne gluten exposure but I saw one suggesting it is bad for a celiac. However feel free to do your own research I don’t think many of us are researchers on this particular topic all I can give is my personal experience and you should take that with a grain of salt and continue a never ending quest for more knowledge. 

[Wheatwacked]

Welcome to the forum ArdentApe.

     The difference between you and your father could be vitamin D hydroxy 25 blood levels.  Do you know what they are?

each 10 ng/ml decrease in vitamin D level was linked with an increased prevalence of asthma

"Baker’s asthma is a frequent occupational allergic disease caused mainly by inhalation of cereal flour, particularly wheat flour. It is considered one of the most common types of occupational asthma. Although wheat is the most commonly involved cereal, others (rye, barley, rice, maize, and oats) also play a role in baker’s asthma."

   What I find interesting is that in most studies of vitamin D, they always limit the results to 3 groups.

• Deficient   less than 25 nmol/L or 10 ng/ml
• Insufficient 25 to 50 nmol/L or 10 to 20 ng/ml
• Optimal   more than 50 nmol/L  or more than 20 ng/ml.

"The concentration of 25(OH)D was measured in a range from 10 to 375 nmol/L."  Yet the ethics of vitamin D research only allow clumping of all results above 50 nmol/L to 375 nmol/L as a single group.  A lifeguard in summer has around 200 nmol/L or 80 ng/ml.  What are the ethics committees hiding from us?

Quote

        Vitamin D status and asthma, lung function, and hospitalization among British adults 

 Collectively, our study found that the higher serum vitamin D levels were associated with lower odds of asthma and current wheeze was in British adults. In our results, higher vitamin D level also has positive effects on lung function.

 

[Aaron2018]

4 hours ago, Ardent Ape said:

I made an account just to give you my anecdotal answer. Yes, you should be concerned about it. If any (which it will) flour gets into the air while moving the bag around, that’s a potential for it to get into your system.  Will it cause you personally problems or get into your body every time? That’s hard to say  

I worked at a health food store briefly where they made their own baked goods from scratch. Within two weeks I had significant reactions I never baked anything myself but I had to clean the bowl of the Hobart occasionally.  When the owner did make things there was flour all of the place too. I thought it couldn’t be an issue unless I ate it but I was quite wrong. I even stopped actually eating from the ‘gluten free’ salad bar they had to see if it was cross contaminated (which it likely was) but I still got reactions and it kept getting worse. Eventually I fell ill with something that felt like a head cold but none of my co workers were or got sick being in close vicinity to me so I’m guessing my immune system was weakened. After a bit over a month and many search engine queries I had to leave the job.

I don’t go into pizzerias or bakery shops anymore. I think I’m pretty sensitive personally but my dad who is also celiac doesn’t have symptoms when he’s in a bakery or eats a gluten free pizza at a pizzeria but I would guess he still has the autoimmune reaction without major symptoms. In general my dad is asymptomatic the only reason he found out was because he didn’t absorb vitamins well after his doctor was trying to up his vitamin d levels they found out it was celiac’s causing his poor absorption but he never claimed to feel ‘bad’. I however get very itchy, abdominal pain, loose stools, bloating, and uncomfortable amounts of gas.

I’m no expert but this is my experience and the information I have gathered. The best way to know would be getting testing done before (ideally completely clean) and after handling flour. There have only been a relatively small number of studies checking about airborne gluten exposure but I saw one suggesting it is bad for a celiac. However feel free to do your own research I don’t think many of us are researchers on this particular topic all I can give is my personal experience and you should take that with a grain of salt and continue a never ending quest for more knowledge. 

Thanks for your help , I do agree when you say you get itchy, I have gotten itchy many times handling gluten baking flour at work. Should I tell my boss that I can’t be doing stuff that involves handling the gluten baking flour? I can’t avoid having to enter the baking aisle because it’s just necessary for me to show people things, but I worry that telling my boss that I should not be handling gluten baking flour may or may not be the right thing to do. Should I tell my boss about getting itchy when handling gluten baking flour or just keep trying to avoid having to do it, only handling it sometimes when I have gloves on?