Occupational asthma caused by inhalation of surfactant composed of amines

Is the incidence of aliphatic amine‐induced occupational rhinitis and asthma underestimated?

“…Bis(aminopropyl)laurylamine has been demonstrated to be a hapten in detergent‐disinfectant‐induced allergic contact dermatitis [Dejobert et al, ; Dibo and Brasch, ; Schliemann et al, ]. Villar‐Gomez et al [] recently highlighted the possible health effects of these amino compounds in surfactants, reporting a case of OA related to exposure to a surfactant agent composed of an aqueous solution of “alkylamine ethoxylate and a mixture of alkyleneoxy and ethylenediamine”.…”

Occupational rhinitis and asthma due to EDTA‐containing detergents or disinfectants

“…Aminophylline results from the linkage of ethylenediamine to theophylline; it has been responsible for numerous cases of allergic contact dermatitis [Baer et al, 1959] but also for cases of allergic reactions after systemic administration: eczema [Walker and Ferguson, 2004], urticaria [Urbani, 1994], exfoliative erythroderma [Elias and Levinson, 1981], and baboon syndrome [Guin et al, 1999]. Numerous cases of occupational asthma to ethylenediamine have also been reported since 1963 [Gelfand, 1963; Lam and Chan‐Yeung, 1980; Aldrich et al, 1987] and some of them have been documented by specific bronchial provocation tests [Nakazawa and Matsui, 1990; Ng et al, 1991, 1995; Casas et al, 2002; Villar‐Gomez et al, 2009]. Cross‐reactions between EDTA and ethylenediamine in skin tests have been reported [Raymond and Gross, 1969; Eriksen, 1975], but appear to be rare [Provost and Jillson, 1967; Epstein, 1974; Fisher, 1975; Balato et al, 1986; de Groot, 1986; Bhushan and Beck, 1998; Pruitt and Warshaw, 2010].…”

Occupational Asthma (Work-caused), and Work-exacerbated Asthma

“…Examples of recently reported new agents or new exposures to high or low molecular weight causes for OA cases include predatory mites used for biological control in tomato and sweet pepper greenhouses, 9 Chrysonilia sitophila contaminating coffee grounds from vending machines, 10 octopus particles in a canning factory, 11 malt in manufacturing and unloading, 12 vancomycin powder inhalation, 13 surfactant composed of amines, 14 turpentine in an art painter, 15 gel flux containing dodecanedioic acid used in electronic soldering, 16 and colistin in a pharmaceutical worker. 17 There are resources for lists of recognized sensitizers and exposures (eg, asmanet.com, and the appendix to the textbook Asthma in the Workplace), 8,18,19 but none can be fully complete as new causes arise each year.…”