Occupational Asthma - a Surprise

Robert W. Griffith, MD

A study done in 13 European countries shows that nursing is the occupation that carries the highest risk of occupational asthma. A report in the medical journal Lancet studied 6800 people who had taken part in an earlier respiratory survey and had no asthma at that time. They were assessed by a methacholine challenge test in roughly half of them, and questionnaire in the other half. The relative risk for new onset asthma was calculated, adjusting for age, sex, smoking, and study center, as possible biasing factors.

First, risk was assessed according to exposure in high-risk jobs vs. low-risk jobs, based on known sensitizing substances and respiratory allergens - cleaning chemicals, aerosols, mites, agricultural products, latex, and so on. Spills, or other acute inhalation events, were associated with an increased risk - 3.3-times the normal likelihood.

Then common occupations were evaluated. A significant excess risk for asthma was seen for nurses. The rate for nurses as 4.8%, compared with woodworkers (3.9%), printers (3.6%), cleaners and caretakers (3.4%), agriculture and forestry workers (3.1%, and electrical processors 2.6%).

Why nurses? One of the authors of the study speculates that the latex in gloves may be partially responsible. Or glutaraldehyde, bleach or other disinfectants might be a cause.

It's hard enough to recruit and train good nurses in sufficient numbers. We must work to eliminate this possible cause for early retirement or job switching.

Source
HealthandAge Blog

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