Canadian Research At-Risk Occupations to Develop Dermatitis
New research has analysed nearly 600,000 records from workers' compensation records to identify which occupations are more at risk of developing the skin damaging disease, dermatitis.
As you would expect, the research highlighted the heightened risk of developing the disease for workers from occupations involving frictional trauma, such as those involved in furniture and fixture manufacturing, food and beverage preparation and the processing of materials like chemicals, petroleum, rubber and plastic.
However more surprisingly, the research also identified a decreased risk of workers in farming, construction and nursing, which had previously been labelled as high-risk groups.
The researchers stated that this could be due to workers previously afflicted with the condition changing occupation, and trends among some groups, such as nurses, to self manage the condition and not report it. Both cases would skew the data.
Dermatitis is the most common occupational skin disease that has a significant impact on a worker's quality of life and work capacity.
