ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Incidence of respiratory sensitisation and allergy to enzymes among employees in an enzyme producing plant and the relation to exposure and host factors

A I Larsen¹, C R Johnsen^1,2, J Frickmann¹ and S Mikkelsen³

¹ Medical Centre, Novozymes A/S, Bagsvaerd, Denmark
² Medical Department, Roskilde County Hospital, Roskilde, Denmark
³ Department of Occupational Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital, Glostrup, Denmark

Correspondence to:
Dr A I Larsen, Medical Centre, Novozymes DK, Krogshøjvej 36, DK-2880 Bagsvaerd, Denmark; ail{at}novozymes.com

Objectives: Belonging to the group of high molecular weight respiratory sensitisers, microbial enzymes have been reported as a well known cause of occupational allergy, typically manifesting itself as rhinitis and/or asthma. High exposure to such high molecular weight sensitisers, and possibly also peak exposures, implies a higher risk than low exposure, but the exact relation between exposure, sensitisation and clinical allergy remains to be clarified. The authors sought to estimate the risk of respiratory enzyme allergy in an enzyme producing plant and to assess the relation between exposure indices and allergy.

Methods: Retrospective follow-up study based upon data gathered from health surveillance since 1970. 1207 employees from production and laboratories were included. The level of enzyme exposure in the relevant departments was estimated retrospectively into five exposure levels based on 10-fold increments/decrements of the threshold limit value and other exposure information. The risk was estimated in an exponential regression survival model fitted with constant intensity for subperiods of time using maximum likelihood estimation.

Results: During the first three years of a person’s employment, the enzyme sensitisation and allergy incidence rates were 0.13 and 0.03 per person-year at risk, respectively. In the fitted models, exposure class did not correlate with the outcome variables. The risk of sensitisation decreased along the three decades, whereas the risk of allergy remained unchanged. The risk of sensitisation and allergy was doubled among smokers. Pre-employment atopy was only associated with sensitisation risk.

Conclusion: Sensitisation to enzymes decreased during the study period, possibly reflecting improvements in the working environment. A similar decrease could not be demonstrated for allergy to enzymes. Neither of the two outcomes correlated with exposure estimates, possibly because of the low precision of the estimates.

Abbreviations: OHS, Occupational Health Service

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