Occupational Dermatoses by Type of Work in Greece

Abstract

BackgroundTo elucidate the relationship between seven occupational dermatoses (ODs) and 20 types of work in Greece.MethodsThis was a prevalence epidemiologic study of certain ODs among 4,000 workers employed in 20 types of enterprise, in 104 companies, in 2006–2012, using data from company medical records, questionnaires, occupational medical, and special examinations. The χ2 test was applied to reveal statistically significant relationships between types of enterprises and occurrence of ODs.ResultsA high percentage (39.9%) of employees included in the study population suffered from ODs. The highest prevalence rates were noted among hairdressers (of contact dermatitis: 30%), cooks (of contact dermatitis: 29.5%), bitumen workers (of acne: 23.5%), car industry workers (of mechanical injury: 15%), construction workers (of contact urticaria: 29.5%), industrial cleaning workers (of chemical burns: 13%), and farmers (of malignant tumors: 5.5%). We observed several statistical significant correlations between ODs (acute and chronic contact dermatitis, urticaria, mechanical injury, acne, burns, skin cancer) and certain types of enterprises. There was no statistically significant correlation between gender and prevalence of ODs, except for dermatoses caused by mechanical injuries afflicting mainly men [χ2 (1) = 13.40, p < 0.001] and for chronic contact dermatitis [χ2 (1) = 5.53, p = 0.019] afflicting mainly women.ConclusionPrevalence of ODs is high in Greece, contrary to all official reports by the Greek National Institute of Health. There is a need to introduce a nationwide voluntary surveillance system for reporting ODs and to enhance skin protection measures at work.

Occupational skin diseases in hairdressing apprentices – has anything changed?

“…This is the first study to investigate contact urticaria in hairdressing apprentices. A previous study investigating contact urticaria in trained hairdressers reported a prevalence of 16% (24). This is comparable to our findings among apprentices in the fourth year of apprenticeship and recently graduated hairdressers.…”

Skin disease symptoms and related risk factors among young workers in high‐risk jobs

“…Although, in our study, the frequency of SD symptoms in hairdressers was found to be 45.1%, this result was not statistically significantly. The prevalence of SD symptoms or hand/forearm eczema symptoms was generally observed to be significantly higher in the hairdresser group, according to the results of some other studies . However, the prevalence of SD symptoms was found to be significantly higher in the car mechanics in this study.…”

Incidence of skin and respiratory diseases among Danish hairdressing apprentices

“…Epidemiological data on contact urticaria in hairdressers are sparse , and the only existing data on its occurrence in hairdressing apprentices derive from our baseline study, in which a prevalence of 7.3% was found . Interestingly, the incidence of urticaria on the hands, wrists or forearms was as high as that of hand eczema in both hairdressing apprentices and population controls.…”