[sirI]

Nurses develop occupational asthma at a rate that is more than double that of the general population, investigators in a multinational study have found.


Nurses had a relative risk of 2.2 (P=0.007) for occupationally acquired asthma, according to a report in the July 28 issue of The Lancet, trailing only printers (RR=2.37) among occupations represented in the study.

[JessicRN]

Originally Posted by sirI

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...9905&src=nldne

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Nice to know considering the fact that I just got diagnosed with asthma at age 47 and I do not smoke. I told occupational heath my problem began after multiple exposures to waxing. I found the wax stripper to be exceptionally strong which at first made me have severe migraines but now I cough abd cough until I vomit.

[Emmanuel Goldstein]

The ONLY time I cough and wheeze is when I'm working; if I work more than a couple of days in a row, I'm a mess for a day or two at home too. I'm latex allergic, but even if I don't use any latex products directly, my allergist says there is enough of the stuff in the hospital environment to cause this reaction. Not to mention all the other chemicals floating about. Beyond just the respiratory issues, I'm convinced this also goes a long way in explaining my other health problems.

[VivaLasViejas]

At the hospital where I used to work, several of us nurses had such bad reactions to a chemical used in stripping floors that the environmental services folks could not use it whenever we were on duty. On one memorable occasion, I came in to work, and almost wound up as a patient---I was coughing and wheezing so badly that my O2 sats plunged into the low 80s and my pulse shot up to the 150s. Thankfully, our RTs were great, and they gave me a couple of breathing tx (I refused to go down to the ER) so I could resume my appointed rounds.

But, instead of getting rid of the chemical which caused so many respiratory problems for the staff, TPTB merely decided to schedule floor stripping around our schedules. I wonder sometimes, if the stuff was that bad for relatively healthy people, what was it doing to the lungs of our COPD'ers and lung CA patients?

Funny, I hadn't even thought about any connections between my own asthma and my work........probably because I've had asthma for a long time and know to avoid the obvious triggers (cigarette smoke, excessive perfumes, skunk odors etc.). But now that you mention it, I've hardly had any problems at all since I left hospital work a couple of years ago. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

[SCmomof3]

I've heard this before. There is also a link to frequent latex contact and asthma. I'm just lucky, I guess - I already had asthma before I became a nurse

[nightmare]

Where I work they have these puffing spray air fresheners which puff out at regular intervals,we all cough and sneeze but they won't take them away!!

[TeleRNer]

One morning the maintenance crew at my hospital was painting the door jams with varnish readying the hospital for of all things "joint commision." I was the only one who complained to management and I didn't handle it very well by insulting the head of the maintenance crew by stating he should use his brains. And I was angry that the managment was not only not considering the health of the workers but the health of the patients as well. I got written up and she misquoted me and everything, "Gawd!." Thank goodness another incident like this one has not happened again. Oh, and I should add incoming nurses working the day shift were complaining of difficulty breathing, itchy noses and a "toxic smell."

[MAISY, RN-ER]

I had heard about the latex connections, as well as, "sick" closed environments, but I also had read an article a couple of years ago that respiratory treatments were thought to contribute/cause asthma and that RT had a higher incidence of asthma and breathing problems.

We give many tx in ER, I make it a habit not to be in room during that time, I also instruct patients not to blow neb tx smoke in direction of their families. Has anyone else heard of this?
Maisy