Infectious disease risk in asbestos abatement workers

BMC Public Health

Debate

Giuseppe Mastrangelo¹  Luca Cegolon²  John H Lange³ 

[1] Department of Molecular Medicine, Padua University, Padua, Italy;Department of Molecular Medicine, Padua University, Padua, Italy;Imperial College London, School of Public Health, St. Mary's Campus, London, UK;Envirosafe Training and Consultants, Pittsburgh, PA, USA;

关键词: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease;    Infection Risk;    Personal Protective Equipment;    Asbestosis;    High Smoking Rate;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-12-665

 received in 2011-12-20, accepted in 2012-08-01,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe current literature reports increased infectious disease occurrence in various construction occupations, as an important contributor to morbidity and mortality arising from employment.These observations should be expanded to asbestos abatement workers, as the abatement can create an environment favorable for bacterial, viral and fungal infections.DiscussionAsbestos abatement work employs activities resulting in cuts, blisters and abrasions to the skin, work in a dirty environment and exposure to dust, mists and fumes.Furthermore, this population exhibits a high smoking rate which increases the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and respiratory infections.In addition, these workers also commonly employ respirators, which can accumulate dirt and debris magnifying exposure to microbes. Use of respirators and related types of personal protective equipment, especially if shared and in the close environment experienced by workers, may enhance communicability of these agents, including viruses.SummaryAbatement workers need to be provided with information on hazards and targeted by appropriate health education to reduce the infection risk. Epidemiological studies to investigate this risk in asbestos removers are recommended.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Lange et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.