Higher prevalence of dry symptoms in skin, eyes, nose and throat among workers in clean rooms with moderate humidity.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether working under relative humidity (RH) around 55 +/- 5% may lead to dry symptoms among workers in tropical regions.


METHODS
We recruited 3,154 Taiwanese workers who had no history of skin diseases and compared dry symptoms between clean room workers (RH around 55 +/- 5%) and other workers (RH around 65 +/- 5%).


RESULTS
Clean room workers had higher prevalences of dry symptoms of the eye (odds ratio [OR]=1.62, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.40 to 1.86), nose and throat (OR=2.15, 95% CI: 1.66 to 2.79), and skin (OR=1.46, 95% CI: 1.23 to 1.73). In clean room workers, however, dry skin symptoms affected the palms (OR=1.72, 95% CI: 1.24 to 2.39), which are covered by gloves, more frequently than the face (OR=0.65, 95% CI: 0.45 to 0.94), which is exposed to the room air. We found working in clean rooms (adjusted OR [AOR]=1.38, 95% CI: 1.08 to 1.77), 24 to 30 yr of age (AOR=0.78, 95% CI: 0.62 to 0.99), family history of atopic diseases (AOR=1.75, 95% CI: 1.37 to 2.25), and skin moisturizer use (AOR=1.64, 95% CI: 1.30 to 2.06) were independent predictors of skin symptoms. In addition, working in clean rooms was an independent predictor of dry eye (AOR=1.30, 95% CI: 1.06 to 1.60) and dry nose and throat (AOR=1.70, 95% CI: 1.28 to 2.26) symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
Whereas the humidity in such working environments is not very low, for workers living in a high humidity environment, the relatively low humidity may still cause dry symptoms of the eye, nose, and throat.
Su
Shih-Bin
SB
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.
Wang
Bour-Jr
BJ
Tai
Chien
C
Chang
Hsiu-Fen
HF
Guo
How-Ran
HR
D000328:Adult; D003681:Dehydration / Q000150:complications*; D015352:Dry Eye Syndromes / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004780:Environment, Controlled; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006813:Humidity / Q000009:adverse effects*; D007057:Ichthyosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D009297:Nasal Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism*; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D010614:Pharynx / Q000378:metabolism*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan; D055815:Young Adult