Abstract
Objective
Due to new legal requirements in Germany, the employer must request preventive medical check-ups for activities involving exposure to dust from experimental animals in the rooms in which the animals are kept. The objective is to report our first experiences with these medical check-ups in the context of academic research.
Methods
The check-ups were carried out since November 2005 and comprised a questionnaire and a medical examination, including a pulmonary function test with whole-body plethysmography. Respiratory, nasal and ocular symptoms related to occupational exposure to animals were documented. Participation in skin prick tests (ubiquitous inhalation allergens and laboratory animal allergens), a bronchial provocation test with methacholine, and serological examinations for total IgE and specific IgE antibodies was voluntary.
Results
Data on 132 persons are presented. One hundred and six of these had already been exposed for at least 1 year. Main complaints at the workplace were sneezing and runny nose. Ocular symptoms and bronchial asthma were reported infrequently. The development of at least one of these symptoms occurred in 34% of employees with an exposure of at least 1 year. If the weekly exposure duration was at least 5 h, the proportion of employees with complaints rose to 44.9%. In employees occupationally exposed to mice and rats, work-related complaints occurred in 33.7 and 37.8%, respectively, and sensitisation rates were 12.7 and 16.3%, respectively. Employees with and without complaints differed in history of allergic symptoms, and workplace safety measures.
Conclusions
In employees with occupational contact with laboratory animal dust, the frequency of complaints was high. The results confirm the necessity of regular medical check-ups for employees with contact with laboratory animal dust. Nevertheless, the medical check-ups must be part of a prevention strategy including education, engineering controls, administrative controls, use of personal protective equipment and vocational integration.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank all participants for their co-operation. Parts of this paper have been included in the medical thesis (in preparation) of Meta Hager at the Medical Faculty of the University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Parts of this paper had been presented at the annual congress of the German Society for Occupational and Environmental Medicine (Mainz, Germany from 21st March to 24th March 2007) and at the Second World Congress on Work-Related and Environmental Allergy (13–16 June 2007, Weimar, Germany).
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Schmid, K., Jüngert, B., Hager, M. et al. Is there a need for special preventive medical check-ups in employees exposed to experimental animal dust?. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 82, 319–327 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-008-0338-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-008-0338-9