Occupational hand eczema in an industrial city

Hand eczema in relation to occupation was studied in an industrial city. Questionnaires were sent to 20,000 individuals aged 20-65 years, randomly selected from the population register of the city. Those subjects (1385) considering themselves to have had hand eczema within the previous 12 months were invited to a dermatological examination including patch testing. It was found that the reported 1-year period prevalence of hand eczema in the total sample was 11.8%. The only occupational group reporting a statistically significant higher 1-year period prevalence was service work, 15.4%. Among all occupations, cleaners turned out to have the highest period prevalence, 21.3%. Hand eczema was more common among people reporting some kind of occupational exposure. The most harmful exposure turned out to be to unspecified chemicals, water and detergents and dust and dry dirt. The use of protective gloves is reported and analysed. The most common contact allergy was nickel, followed by cobalt, fragrance-mix, balsam of Peru and colophony. A statistically significant increase in contact allergy to colophony for women in administrative work was found. It is concluded that the type of hand eczema that is mostly dependent on occupation is irritant contact dermatitis.