Skin disorders among hand solderers in the electronics industry

Full-time solderers (n = 150) and non-soldering administrative staff (n = 52) were interviewed and examined to determine the prevalence of work-related rashes, to assess their acne status and to measure their forehead skin sebum levels with a Sebumeter. The period prevalence rates (of ever having a work-related skin rash since working as a solderer) for the 82 solderers using multicored solder wire and for the 68 workers using liquid flux were 19.5 per cent and 10.3 per cent respectively. Among the liquid flux solderers, 29 used cotton gloves. The prevalence rate of work-related skin rashes was 3.4 per cent in this group, compared to 15.4 per cent among the 39 ungloved workers. A similar finding was noted among the multicored solder wire users (9 per cent of the 11 gloved workers and 21 per cent of the 71 ungloved workers). On examination, six solderers (all ungloved multicored flux users) had work-related dermatitis of the hands or fore-arms. The point prevalence rate of work-related dermatitis among all solderers was 4 per cent. For non-occupational dermatitis, the point prevalence rate was 2.7 per cent among the solderers and 4 per cent among the administrative staff. The point prevalence and severity of acne among the 150 solderers were the same as those of the 52 administrative workers who were of a similar age and sex distribution. Forehead skin sebum levels, after adjusting for possible confounding factors such as age, atopic status and time elapsed since the last face wash, were also similar in the two groups of employees.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)