12-year data on dermatologic cases in the Finnish Register of Occupational Diseases I: Distribution of different diagnoses and main causes of allergic contact dermatitis.

Background: Skin diseases are among the most common occupational diseases, but detailed analyses on their epidemiology, diagnoses, and causes are relatively scarce.

Objective: To analyze data on skin disease in the Finnish Register of Occupational Diseases (FROD) for (1) different diagnoses and (2) main causes of allergic contact dermatitis (ACD).

Methods: We retrieved data on recognized cases with occupational skin disease (OSD) in the FROD from a 12-year-period 2005-2016 and used national official labor force data of the year 2012.

Results: We analyzed a total of 5265 cases, of which 42% had irritant contact dermatitis (ICD), 35% ACD, 11% contact urticaria/protein contact dermatitis (CU/PCD), and 9% skin infections. The incidence rate of OSD in the total labor force was 18.8 cases/100 000 person years. Skin infections concerned mainly scabies in health care personnel. Twenty-nine per cent of the ACD cases were caused by plastics/resins-related allergens, mainly epoxy chemicals. Other important causes for ACD were rubber, preservatives, metals, acrylates, and hairdressing chemicals. Cases of occupational ACD due to isothiazolinones reached a peak in 2014.

Conclusions: Our analysis confirms that epoxy products are gaining importance as causes of OSD and the isothiazolinone contact allergy epidemic has started to wane.