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Farmers and Farmworkers

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Kanerva’s Occupational Dermatology

Abstract

Farming is among occupations with the highest risk of occupational skin disease (OSD). Up to one-third of farmers complain of work-related skin problems. The incidence of OSD in farmers may be four times higher than in non-farming occupations and up to forty times higher than incidence of occupational respiratory diseases. Farm work-related hazards to the skin include irritants, haptens and allergens of plant, animal, microbial and chemical origin, infectious microbes, parasites, and carcinogens. Farm work-related exposures are complex and variable, which makes them difficult to identify, define, measure, and analyze in objective scientific terms and thus results in major difficulties when assessing the causal relationship between farm work and skin disease. In many countries self-employed farmers do not undergo prophylactic (preemployment or periodic) health checks, which significantly compromises the possibility of primary and secondary prevention of OSD in farmers.

As traditional farms combine functions of work place and dwelling, farmer’s children become exposed to occupational hazards in early life, which may lead to the development of farm work-related OSD even before their first formal employment. Risk factors for early developing of a farm work-related skin disease are presented in order to enable identification of people at particular risk of occupational skin disease.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental Dermatology and Cosmetology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland

    Radoslaw Spiewak

  2. Institute of Dermatology, Krakow, Poland

    Radoslaw Spiewak

Authors
  1. Radoslaw Spiewak
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Correspondence to Radoslaw Spiewak .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Environmental Medicine and Health Theory, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany

    Swen Malte John

  2. National Allergy Research Centre, Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Herlev-Gentofte University Hospital, Hellerup, Hellerup, Denmark

    Jeanne Duus Johansen

  3. Department of Dermatology and Allergology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Thomas Rustemeyer

  4. Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Jena, Jena, Germany

    Peter Elsner

  5. Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Howard I. Maibach

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Spiewak, R. (2020). Farmers and Farmworkers. In: John, S., Johansen, J., Rustemeyer, T., Elsner, P., Maibach, H. (eds) Kanerva’s Occupational Dermatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68617-2_150

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68617-2_150

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68615-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68617-2

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

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