TY - JOUR T1 - Occupational risk factors for asthma among nurses and related healthcare professionals in an international study JF - Occupational and Environmental Medicine JO - Occup Environ Med SP - 474 LP - 479 DO - 10.1136/oem.2006.031203 VL - 64 IS - 7 AU - Maria C Mirabelli AU - Jan-Paul Zock AU - Estel Plana AU - Josep Maria Antó AU - Geza Benke AU - Paul D Blanc AU - Anna Dahlman-Höglund AU - Deborah L Jarvis AU - Hans Kromhout AU - Linnéa Lillienberg AU - Dan Norbäck AU - Mario Olivieri AU - Katja Radon AU - Jordi Sunyer AU - Kjell Torén AU - Marc van Sprundel AU - Simona Villani AU - Manolis Kogevinas Y1 - 2007/07/01 UR - http://oem.bmj.com/content/64/7/474.abstract N2 - Objective: The authors examined the relations between self-reported work tasks, use of cleaning products and latex glove use with new-onset asthma among nurses and other healthcare workers in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS II). Methods: In a random population sample of adults from 22 European sites, 332 participants reported working in nursing and other related healthcare jobs during the nine-year ECRHS II follow-up period and responded to a supplemental questionnaire about their principal work settings, occupational tasks, products used at work and respiratory symptoms. Poisson regression models with robust error variances were used to compare the risk of new-onset asthma among healthcare workers with each exposure to that of respondents who reported professional or administrative occupations during the entire follow-up period (n = 2481). Results: Twenty (6%) healthcare workers and 131 (5%) members of the referent population reported new-onset asthma. Compared to the referent group, the authors observed increased risks among hospital technicians (RR 4.63; 95% CI 1.87 to 11.5) and among those using ammonia and/or bleach at work (RR 2.16; 95% CI 1.03 to 4.53). Conclusions: In the ECRHS II cohort, hospital technicians and other healthcare workers experience increased risks of new-onset current asthma, possibly due to specific products used at work. ER -