Excess incidence of asthma among Finnish cleaners employed in different industries

Abstract

The incidence and risk of asthma among female cleaners employed in different industries was explored. An increased risk of asthma has been associated with the cleaning profession, in some but not all studies.All Finnish females employed as cleaners and all those employed in administrative work were followed for asthma incidence through a record linkage in 1986-1998. An individual was defined as an "incident case of asthma" if they received rights for special reimbursement of asthma medication from the national health insurance or were recognized as having occupational asthma. Age-adjusted relative risks (RR) were estimated for cleaners in comparison with those employed in administrative work.There were 2,414 and 5,235 cases of asthma among the cleaners and administrative workers, respectively. The RR was 1.50 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.43-1.57) in cleaners. The risk was increased in cleaners working in nearly all major sectors of economic activity, but cleaners employed by companies concerned with the manufacture of basic metals (RR 2.47; 95% CI 1.68-3.64) and food products (RR 2.19; 95% CI 1.69-2.85) had the highest risk. Only 25 of the "cases of asthma" among cleaners had been recognized as being occupational asthma.It could be concluded that cleaners have an increased risk of persistent adult-onset asthma. Factors inherent to the environment where cleaning is performed or differences in the cleaning agents used may explain the observed differences between industries. Eur Respir J 2002; 19: 90-95.

Non-sensitising air pollution at workplaces and adult-onset asthma in the beginning of this millennium

“…For example in some Finnish studies an increased risk for asthma was observed in non-sensitising branches such as mining and quarrying (Karjalainen et al 2001), also for construction workers, welders, plumbers and asphalt roofing workers (Karjalainen et al 2002b), wood-processing industry workers (Heikkila et al 2008) and industrial cleaners (Karjalainen et al 2002a). …”

Enfermedades potenciales derivadas de factores de riesgo presentes en la industria de producción de alimentos

“…En la actualidad, dentro del diagnóstico de asma en pacientes adultos, es importante resaltar los aspectos laborales del paciente 17 .…”

“…No obstante, la mayoría de enfermedades ocupacionales pasan desapercibidas debido a una inadecuada vigilancia de los trabajadores y de las alteraciones en la salud-enfermedad por falta de pericia del personal médico que desconoce la asociación entre riesgos laborales y enfermedades ocupacionales 17 .…”

“…Del 10 al 15% de los casos nuevos de asma en adultos es atribuible a exposición ocupacional a sustancias. Más de 250 componentes encontrados en gran variedad de lugares de trabajo son conocidos causantes de asma, y algunos de ellos, como gases, polvos y humos, agravan el asma existente 17 .…”

“…Esto es, basándose en la estimación del riesgo, que la fracción de casos de asma atribuible a factores laborales fue de 33%. El riesgo fue mayor en trabajadores del área de limpieza de compañías dedicadas a la manufactura de metales básicos y productos alimenticios y los alérgenos más relacionados en estos casos fueron los detergentes, acrilatos, isocianatos, etanolaminas y componentes metálicos 17 .…”