Reducing the risks of occupational dermatitis on welding industry: An epidemiological study

Abstract

Epidemiology is a study that concentrates on the analysis of the cause and effect of a health-related states or events (disease) to see its prevalence in a specified population (Last 1988). A critical premise of epidemiology is that disease and other health events do not occur randomly in a population, but are more likely to occur in some members of the population than others because of the risk factors that may not be distributed randomly in the population. This mostly happens in workplaces like in welding industry. Multiple and distinctive factors in welding process can cause occupational diseases on the workers including occupational dermatitis (OD). Based on the results, personal and environmental factors affect the severity and frequency of the OD among the workers. In conclusion, the research findings support the hypothesis that welding work is a risk factor for occupational dermatitis and that professional welding workers may not be sufficiently protected from dermal hazards at work. Occupational medicine and dermatology specialists and others who provide healthcare to professional welders should be aware of the health risks of performing welding work and handling specific materials and equipment and the possibility that symptoms of this cutaneous disease are underreported and underdiagnosed in this population.