Skin disorders in ship's engineers exposed to oils and solvents

Ship's engineers are exposed to mineral oil and solvents in their work. This study was intended to investigate if the ship's engineers had an increased prevalence of skin disorders and whether any such increased risk could be linked to exposure to mineral oils and solvents. A self-administered questionnaire was sent to 700 male seamen from 3 Norwegian ferry countries. Of the 492 respondents, 169 were currently working as ship's engineers and 295 had never worked as ship's engineers. The outcomes eczema, acne, dry skin, and dermatitis and hand dermatitis were defined from the questionnaire. Prevalences of these skin disorders were compared between the groups. Logistic regression was used to elucidate explanatory variables further. When comparing current ship's engineers with those who had never worked as ship's engineers, the crude prevalence ratios were 1.7 (95% CI 1.1-2.7) for dry skin, 1.7 (95% CI 1.1-2.5) for any dermatitis, 1.3 (95% CI 0.66-2.67) for acne and 1.2 (CI 0.61-2.27) for eczema. The risk of these symptoms increased for the engineers in the regression analysis, after controlling for age, self-reported use of Stoddard solvent, and the use of fuel oil as hand cleansing agent. The increased prevalence of skin disorders found among ship's engineers in this investigation may be explained by direct contact with mineral oils and solvents.