OCCUPATIONAL-DISEASE IN THE WOOD-PROCESSING INDUSTRY

In 1991 around 680000 persons working in the wood-processing industry were registered in the trade association. Potential allergen sources are dust of domestic- and foreign wood species. Wood is a solid, yet elastic tissue structure, with the cell walls embedded in lignin. The stored constituents of wood generally act as fungicides, insecticides and bactericides and are composed of proteins, sugars, glycosides, tannins, inorganic and organic acids and salts etc. Coatings are composed of volatile (solvents) and non-volatile components (filmforming components, resins, colouring components, pigments, etc.) which may be sensitizers; in addition, chemicals used as hardeners are strong sensitizers. The medical clarification of complaints as of occupational origin, requires skin tests, provokation tests, as well as in vitro tests with specifically prepared test extracts. In 157 surveys to clarify an occupational relation for complaints in accordance with classification 4301/4302 German BeKV (occupational disease; trade association), 38.8% of the cases could be so classified. Sensitization to 33 different wood-species has been found. The most frequent sources of the allergens are: abachi, makore, oak, beech, gaboon, kambala and fir-wood. Sensitization to isocyanates occured in 5.2% of cases. The high frequency of concomitant sensitization for ubiquitous aero-allergens indicates, that the principal considerations for vocational guidance, as far as allergological aspects are concerned, lie before the start of the career.