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Occupations and exposure events in acute and subacute irritant-induced asthma

BACKGROUND: Exposures leading to irritant-induced asthma (IIA) are poorly documented. METHODS: We retrospectively screened the medical records of patients with IIA diagnosed in an occupational medicine clinic during 2000–2018. We classified the cases into acute (onset after single exposure) and suba...

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Autores principales: Lindström, Irmeli, Lantto, Jussi, Karvala, Kirsi, Soini, Satu, Ylinen, Katriina, Suojalehto, Hille, Suuronen, Katri
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8526874/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33790028
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2020-107323
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author Lindström, Irmeli
Lantto, Jussi
Karvala, Kirsi
Soini, Satu
Ylinen, Katriina
Suojalehto, Hille
Suuronen, Katri
author_facet Lindström, Irmeli
Lantto, Jussi
Karvala, Kirsi
Soini, Satu
Ylinen, Katriina
Suojalehto, Hille
Suuronen, Katri
author_sort Lindström, Irmeli
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Exposures leading to irritant-induced asthma (IIA) are poorly documented. METHODS: We retrospectively screened the medical records of patients with IIA diagnosed in an occupational medicine clinic during 2000–2018. We classified the cases into acute (onset after single exposure) and subacute (onset after multiple exposures) IIA. We analysed in detail, occupations, causative agents and their air levels in the workplace, exposure events and the root causes of high exposure. RESULTS: Altogether 69 patients were diagnosed with IIA, 30 with acute and 39 with subacute IIA. The most common occupational groups were industrial operators (n=23, 33%), metal and machinery workers (n=16, 11%) and construction workers (n=12, 8%). Among industrial operators significantly more cases had subacute IIA than acute IIA (p=0.002). Forty cases (57%) were attributable to some type of corrosive acidic or alkaline chemical. Acute IIA followed accidents at work in different types of occupation, while subacute IIA was typical among industrial operators performing their normal work tasks under poor work hygiene conditions. The most common root cause was lack of information or false guidance in acute IIA (n=11, 36%) and neglect of workplace hygiene measures in subacute IIA (n=29, 74%). CONCLUSIONS: Accidents are the main causes of acute IIA, whereas subacute IIA can develop in normal work in risk trades with poor work hygiene. Airborne strong acids or bases seem to be the most important causative agents of acute and subacute IIA. The different risk profiles of acute and subacute IIA should be considered in the prevention and identification of the cases.
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spelling pubmed-85268742021-11-04 Occupations and exposure events in acute and subacute irritant-induced asthma Lindström, Irmeli Lantto, Jussi Karvala, Kirsi Soini, Satu Ylinen, Katriina Suojalehto, Hille Suuronen, Katri Occup Environ Med Workplace BACKGROUND: Exposures leading to irritant-induced asthma (IIA) are poorly documented. METHODS: We retrospectively screened the medical records of patients with IIA diagnosed in an occupational medicine clinic during 2000–2018. We classified the cases into acute (onset after single exposure) and subacute (onset after multiple exposures) IIA. We analysed in detail, occupations, causative agents and their air levels in the workplace, exposure events and the root causes of high exposure. RESULTS: Altogether 69 patients were diagnosed with IIA, 30 with acute and 39 with subacute IIA. The most common occupational groups were industrial operators (n=23, 33%), metal and machinery workers (n=16, 11%) and construction workers (n=12, 8%). Among industrial operators significantly more cases had subacute IIA than acute IIA (p=0.002). Forty cases (57%) were attributable to some type of corrosive acidic or alkaline chemical. Acute IIA followed accidents at work in different types of occupation, while subacute IIA was typical among industrial operators performing their normal work tasks under poor work hygiene conditions. The most common root cause was lack of information or false guidance in acute IIA (n=11, 36%) and neglect of workplace hygiene measures in subacute IIA (n=29, 74%). CONCLUSIONS: Accidents are the main causes of acute IIA, whereas subacute IIA can develop in normal work in risk trades with poor work hygiene. Airborne strong acids or bases seem to be the most important causative agents of acute and subacute IIA. The different risk profiles of acute and subacute IIA should be considered in the prevention and identification of the cases. BMJ Publishing Group 2021-11 2021-03-31 /pmc/articles/PMC8526874/ /pubmed/33790028 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2020-107323 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Workplace
Lindström, Irmeli
Lantto, Jussi
Karvala, Kirsi
Soini, Satu
Ylinen, Katriina
Suojalehto, Hille
Suuronen, Katri
Occupations and exposure events in acute and subacute irritant-induced asthma
title Occupations and exposure events in acute and subacute irritant-induced asthma
title_full Occupations and exposure events in acute and subacute irritant-induced asthma
title_fullStr Occupations and exposure events in acute and subacute irritant-induced asthma
title_full_unstemmed Occupations and exposure events in acute and subacute irritant-induced asthma
title_short Occupations and exposure events in acute and subacute irritant-induced asthma
title_sort occupations and exposure events in acute and subacute irritant-induced asthma
topic Workplace
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8526874/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33790028
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2020-107323
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