Smoking and ethylene diamine sensitization in an industrial population

The authors studied the relationships between a history of allergy symptoms and smoking practices on respiratory sensitization to ethylene diamine (EDA) in 337 employees who had worked with it for 8 years. Thirty-eight of these had become sensitized and were reassigned to tasks not involving EDA. Responses to a mailed questionnaire yielded histories of smoking and of symptoms suggestive of allergic disease. Correlation of these histories with latency (months between first exposure to EDA and onset of respiratory symptoms) in the 38 sensitized workers revealed that current smokers had the shortest latencies, averaging 7.0 months. Persons with any history of allergic symptoms, but who had never smoked, had mean latencies of 11.3 months. Persons with histories of asthma or hay fever symptoms had mean latencies of 16.2 months and 16.7 months, respectively. Symptom-free employees who had never smoked had the longest latencies, averaging 37.3 months.