Agents and trends in health care workers' occupational asthma

Details

• Personal Author:
  Burge PS ; Henneberger, Paul K. ; McGrath EE ; Moore VC ; Walters GI
• Description:
  Background: There is a disproportionately high number of cases of work-related asthma occurring in health care occupations due to agents such as glutaraldehyde, latex and cleaning products. Aims: To understand the causes and measure trends over time of occupational asthma (OA) in health care workers (HCWs). Methods: We reviewed OA notifications from the Midland Thoracic Society's Surveillance Scheme of Occupational Asthma (SHIELD) database in the West Midlands, UK, from 1991 to 2011 and gathered data on occupation, causative agent and annual number of notifications. Results: There were 182 cases of OA in HCWs (median annual notifications = 7; interquartile range [IQR] = 5-11), representing 5-19% of annual SHIELD notifications. The modal annual notification was 20 (in 1996); notifications have declined since then, in line with total SHIELD notifications. The majority of cases (136; 75%) occurred in nursing, operating theatre, endoscopy and radiology staff. The most frequently implicated agents were glutaraldehyde (n = 69), latex (n = 47) and cleaning products (n = 27), accounting for 79% of the 182 cases. Cleaning product-related OA was an emerging cause with 22 cases after 2001 and only 5 cases between 1991 and 2000.ConclusionsControl measures within the UK National Health Service have seen a decline in OA in HCWs due to latex and glutaraldehyde, though OA remains a problem amongst HCWs exposed to cleaning products. Continuing efforts are required to limit the number of cases in this employment sector. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Chemistry Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Irritants Lung Men Occupational Health Respiratory Hypersensitivity Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Women

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• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Cleaning Agent Chemical-properties Cleaning-compounds Exposure-levels Glutaraldehyde Health-care Health-care-facilities Health-care-personnel Health Care Humans Latex Medical-facilities Medical-personnel Medical-services Nurses Nursing Occupational Asthma Pulmonary-system Pulmonary-system-disorders Respiration Respiratory-hypersensitivity Respiratory-irritants Statistical-analysis

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• ISSN:
  0962-7480
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  63
• Issue:
  7
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20043101
• Citation:
  Occup Med 2013 Oct; 63(7):513-516
• Contact Point Address:
  G. I. Walters, Occupational Lung Disease Unit, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Bordesley Green East, Birmingham B9 5SS, UK
• Email:
  gaxwalters@hotmail.com
• CAS Registry Number:
  Glutaraldehyde (CAS RN 111-30-8)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e4393fa8a9cb0ca7772e331d87dd53076441a766be810a5f561a6e40ac9812defcd20d34ad26f4aa6db9077cadec6f395f629f6b2236e05084522dcae92aed0c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/195114/cdc_195114_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 207.47 KB ]