Occupational Medicine Advance Access published online on May 11, 2009
Occupational Medicine, doi:10.1093/occmed/kqp051
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cutaneous and respiratory symptoms among professional cleaners
1 Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2 Cardiovascular Clinical Research Unit, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
3 Gage Occupational and Environmental Health Unit, University of Toronto and St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
4 Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
5 Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
6 Department of Medicine, Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Background Occupational dermatitis is very common and has a large economic impact. Cleaners are at an increased risk for both work-related cutaneous and respiratory symptoms.
Aims To compare the prevalence of occupational cutaneous symptoms among professional indoor cleaners to other building workers (OBW) and to determine associations with exposures and with respiratory symptoms among cleaners.
Methods A questionnaire completed by indoor professional cleaners and OBW to compare rash and respiratory symptoms between these groups examined workplace factors such as training, protective equipment and work tasks.
Results In total, 549 of the 1396 professional cleaners (39%) and 593 of the 1271 OBW (47%) completed questionnaires. The prevalence of rash was significantly higher in the cleaners compared to the OBW. For male cleaners, 21% (86/413) had a rash in the past 12 months compared to only 11% (13/115) of OBW (P < 0.05). The rashes experienced by the cleaners were more likely to be on their hands and worse at work. Cleaners washed their hands significantly more often than OBW. Cleaners with a rash were less likely to have received workplace training regarding their skin and were more likely to find the safety training hard to understand. Cleaners with a rash within the past year were significantly more likely to have work-related asthma symptoms than cleaners without a rash (P < 0.001).
Conclusions This study demonstrates a strong link between work-related symptoms of asthma and dermatitis among cleaners. Effective preventive measures, such as the use of protective skin and respiratory equipment, should be emphasized.
Keywords Asthma; gloves; hand washing; occupational dermatitis; occupational health; protective equipment; rash; workplace training; work-related asthma
Correspondence to: Susan M. Tarlo, Department of Medicine, Toronto Western Hospital, 399 Bathurst St, EW7-449, Toronto, Ontario M5T 2S8, Canada. Tel: +1 416 603 5177; fax: +1 416 603 6763; e-mail: susan.tarlo{at}utoronto.ca