No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

This review highlights the latest developments in the control of enzyme-induced occupational asthma and allergy (rhinitis and conjunctivitis) in the detergent industry. The industry has developed guidelines for the safe handling of enzymes in order to reduce the risk of occupational allergy and asthma. Those manufacturing facilities that follow all of the guidelines enjoy very low or no cases of asthma and allergy among workers exposed to enzymes. The key to the success of the management of enzyme-induced allergy and asthma is prospective surveillance for the development of enzyme-specific IgE antibody before the onset of allergic symptoms. This allows for continuing interventions to reduce exposures, so as to minimize or eliminate those associated with symptoms. Workers with IgE to enzymes can still continue to work in the industry symptom-free for their entire career. This indicates that exposures needed to induce sensitization are different and probably lower than exposures needed to elicit enzyme allergic symptoms. The experience of the detergent enzyme industry in controlling occupational allergens can be applied to other industries. The detergent enzyme story can be viewed as a model for the control of type 1 protein allergens in the workplace.

There is increasing concern about the association of respiratory disease with indoor air quality and environmental atmospheric pollution. Associated with this is the fact that in many countries there has been a significant increase in the prevalence of asthma. Against this background there is a need to address the toxicological, occupational and public health problems associated with the ability of some chemicals to cause allergic sensitization of the respiratory tract and occupational asthma. By definition allergic sensitization of the respiratory tract to chemicals is dependent upon the stimulation of an adaptive immune response that leads to development of respiratory allergy and/or asthma. Although IgE antibody is associated typically with respiratory sensitization to protein allergens, there is less certainty about the role played by antibodies of this type in chemical respiratory allergy and occupational asthma. There are currently no validated or widely accepted methods/models for the identification and characterization of chemicals that have the potential to induce allergic sensitization of the respiratory tract. These and other areas of uncertainty were debated during the course of and following a two day Workshop. The primary purpose of the Workshop was to consider the important clinical and toxicological issues associated with chemical respiratory allergy, and to identify key questions that need to be answered if real progress is to be made.

The ability of exogenous proteins to cause respiratory and gastrointestinal allergy, and sometimes systemic anaphylactic reactions, is well known. What is not clear however, are the properties that confer on proteins the ability to induce allergic sensitization. With an expansion in the use of enzymes for industrial applications and consumer products, and a substantial and growing investment in the development of transgenic crop plants that express novel proteins introduced from other sources, the issue of protein allergenicity has assumed considerable toxicological significance. There is a need now for methods that will allow the accurate identification and characterization of potential protein allergens and for estimation of relative potency as a first step towards risk assessment. To address some of these issues, and to review progress that has been made in the toxicological investigation of respiratory and gastrointestinal allergy induced by proteins, a workshop, entitled the Toxicology of Protein Allergenicity: Prediction and Characterization, was convened at the 37th Annual Conference of the Society of Toxicology in Seattle, Washington (1998). The subject of protein allergenicity is considered here in the context of presentations made at that workshop.