title: Incidence of occupational asthma by occupation and industry in Finland.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Systematic research on occupation or industry-specific incidence of occupational asthma (OA) is sparse. We calculated the incidence of notified OA by occupation, industry and causative agent in Finland for the years 1989-95.
  
  
  METHODS
  The numbers of cases of reported OA were retrieved from the Finnish Registry of Occupational Diseases for the population between 20 and 64 years of age. The numbers of employed workers were retrieved from Statistics Finland. Incidence rates were calculated for each occupation, industry and the total workforce.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Altogether 2602 cases of OA were notified and the mean annual incidence rate was 17.4 cases/100,000 employed workers. The incidence rate was the highest in bakers, other painters and lacquerers, veterinary surgeons, chemical workers, farmers, animal husbandry workers, other food manufacturing workers, welders, plastic product workers, butchers and sausage makers, and floor layers. Cases caused by animal epithelia, hairs and secretions or flours, grains, and fodders accounted for 60% of the total.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Estimation of occupation and industry-specific incidence rates forms the basis for successful prevention of OA, but necessitates collection of data over several years from well-established surveillance systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland. antti.karjalainen@occuphealth.fi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karjalainen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kurppa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Virtanen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Keskinen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nordman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000383:Agriculture / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002617:Chemical Industry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003296:Cooking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D005525:Food-Processing Industry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000453:epidemiology; D015994:Incidence; D007221:Industry / Q000145:classification*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009790:Occupations / Q000145:classification*; D010150:Paint / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010969:Plastics; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012042:Registries; D014730:Veterinary Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014896:Welding / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics