© 2004 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SHORT REPORT
Occupational asthma caused by sodium disulphite in Norwegian lobster fishing
1 Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Vejle Hospital, Denmark
2 Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Herning Hospital, Denmark
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr D Sherson
Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Vejle Hospital, 7100 Vejle, Denmark; davshe@vs.vejleamt.dk
Accepted 24 March 2004
Keywords: occupational asthma; lobster fishing; sodium disulphite
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Sulphite is added to various foods due to its antioxidative effect. Sulphite is known to provoke bronchoconstriction in some atopics and individuals with asthma. Some asthmatics develop symptoms after ingestion of sulphite preserved foods.1
Occupational asthma due to sulphite has been described in the potato, wine, and laundry industries.2,3 An asthma-like syndrome has been described in agricultural workers during apricot sulphurisation.4
To our knowledge this is the first reported case of sulphite related occupational asthma in the fishing industry.
A 31 year old fisherman with no prior history of asthma or pulmonary symptoms developed a dry cough for the first time around 1 September 2001 while dipping Norwegian lobsters (Nephrops Norvegicus) into a sodium disulphite (SD) solution on board a fishing vessel. A wire basket containing 15 kg lobster was dipped into a barrel containing100 litres of water with 2 kg SD powder. This process takes place on
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