Objectives-To investigate the relation

A clinical survey of workers exposed to laboratory animals in a pharmaceutical company was designed to discover the prevalence and severity of symptoms of laboratory animal allergy (LAA). The

Atopy is widely used as a discriminant in selection for employment involving exposure to allergenic substances. The validity of this has been tested in a population with a known burden of what is largely considered to be an IgE mediated disease, laboratory animal allergy. The findings suggest that atopy is insufficiently sensitive and specific for this purpose and that this is probably true for other occupational allergic diseases. The relation between different concepts of atopy--namely, atopy defined by family history, by personal history, and by skin prick tests with common allergens--has also been examined. The subpopulations identified by these criteria differed appreciably. Different concepts of atopy should not be used synonymously as they often are at present.

Objective-To examine whether the geographical distribution of births associated with preconceptional exposure of fathers to radiation at the Sellafield nuclear installation is consistent with the suggestion that this exposure explains the excess of childhood lymphoid malignancy in the adjacent village of Seascale.Design-Retrospective birth cohort study.Setting-Cumbria, West Cumbria health district, and Seascale civil parish. Subjects-The 10363 children born in Cumbria during 1950-89 to fathers employed at Sellafield.Main outcome measures-The doses of external whole body ionising radiation received by fathers at Sellafield in the total time and in the six months before conception of their children; the proportions of the collective doses associated with Seascale and the rest ofWest Cumbria.Results-9256 children were born to fathers who had been exposed to radiation before the child's conception. Of these, 7318 had fathers who were exposed in the six months before conception.Overall 7% (38 person-Sv) of the collective total preconceptional dose and 7% (3 person-Sv) of the collective dose for the six months before conception were associated with children born in Seascale. Of all the children whose fathers worked at Sellafield, 842 (8%) were born in Seascale. The mean individual doses before conception were consistently lower in Seascale than in the rest of West Cumbria.Conclusions-The distribution of the paternal preconceptional radiation dose is statistically incompatible with this exposure providing a causal explanation for the cluster of childhood leukaemias in Seascale.

A prevalence study of occupational asthma was carried out by questionnaire in 1980 among a group of 151 workers who had been or were exposed to azodicarbonamide dust in the process of its manufacture. Twenty-eight (18-5y) people without previous asthma gave a history of episodes of late onset asthma after exposure to azodicarbonamide. Re-exposure caused repetition and worsening of symptoms. Immediate removal from further exposure resulted in rapid cessation of symptoms without further recurrence. Seven of 13 sensitised individuals who were still exposed three months after the onset of disease developed prolonged airways hyperreactivity to common environmental irritants. Azodicarbonamide should be excluded as a causative agent in plastics and rubber industry workers complaining of occupational asthma.