Health effects from working with European Beech hardwood dust
Have you any experience of health effects from working with European Beech hardwood dust?
|
Wood dusts, particularly hardwoods, are fairly common causes of occupational asthma and rhinitis. In my experience the latent interval from first exposure to first symptom is often longer than the average (often several years) and the prognosis worse than average. Most reported cases of occupational asthma in the furniture manufacturing industry come from Northern Italy, where the main cause is in the isocyanate containing varnish rather than the wood dust. Beech dust was also implicated in the outbreak of nasal sinus carcinomas in the 1970's. I cannot find many references to occupational asthma or rhinitis to beech dust, but the following may help.
De Zotti Allergy & Asthma Proc 1996:17:199-203
Kirsten Z Erkrank Atm Org 1985:165:235-41
Can anybody else help?
|
I have had a look on SHIELD - the database we have at Heartlands Hospital which holds notifications of suspected occupational asthma in the west midlands. We do not presently seem to have anyone notified to have problems with beech specifically, but we do have 48 notifications of problems with wood/wood dust, of which 22 are not specified to which particular wood.
|
Out of 191 cases of occupational asthma reported to SWORD and attributed to wood dusts, 72 did not specify a type of dust while 119 did. Only one mentioned 'beech' (together with 'ash' and 'mahogany') as a suspected agent. This was reported by a chest physician in 1995
|
Please sign in or register to add your thoughts.