OCCUPATIONAL INHALED ALLERGIES TO PLANTS

The intention of the study was to examine the dates of 19 patients wit h respiratory symptoms who were occupationally exposed to floral aller gens and sent by the professional associations from 1980-1994 because of the question of an eventual occupational disease. Especially there were concerned florists and gardeners; farmers, bakers, millers and wo od workers were not considered. Nearly all of them showed an intense s ensitization to general pollen found everywhere in the air irrespectiv e of the occupational exposition. Six of them had no clinical symptoms of seasonal allergy, II really suffered from hay-fever. In this point they clearly differ from patients with flour- or wood dust-allergy wh o sometimes show an isolated sensitization specific to professional al lergens or non-IgE-dependent reactions (fe. red cedar). It is discusse d whether occupational diseases caused by floral allergens different f rom pollen, fe. by saps or dust of dried plant-materials can be explai ned like food allergies to vegetables or fruits which occur pollen-ass ociated too. If the disposition for pollen allergy was necessary for t he development of an occupational disease in florists we could underst and the relative small number of type-I allergic respiratory diseases in this profession and the importance of an early vocational guidance is obvious. The abundance of potential allergens in the floral industr y is the reason why sometimes the clinical symptoms cannot be clearly attached to special plants and a partial avoidance of plant exposition is difficult. Therefore an extensive allergologic diagnostic includin g skin and challenge tests is inevitable.