Farmers and farmworkers

Abstract

Farming is one of the occupations with the highest risk of occupational skin disease (OSD). Up to one third of farmers complain of work-related skin problems. The incidence of OSD in farmers may be four times higher than in nonfarming occupations, and up to 40 times higher than incidence of occupational respiratory diseases. Farmwork-related hazards to the skin include irritants, haptens, and allergens of plant, animal, microbial, and chemical origin, infectious microbes, parasites, and carcinogens. Farmwork-related exposures are complex and variable, which makes them difficult to identify, define, measure, and analyze in objective scientific terms, and thus result in major difficulties when assessing the causal relationship between farmwork and skin disease. In many countries, self-employed farmers do not undergo prophylactic (preemployment or periodic) health checks, which significantly compromises the possibility of primary and secondary prevention of OSD in farmers. As traditional farms combine functions of workplace and dwelling, farmer's children become exposed to occupational hazards in early life, which may lead to the development of farmwork-related OSD even before their first formal employment. Risk factors for early development of a farmwork-related skin disease are presented in order to enable identification of people at particular risk of occupational skin disease.