SKIN DISORDERS IN SHIPS ENGINEERS EXPOSED TO OILS AND SOLVENTS

Ship's engineers are exposed to mineral oil and solvents in their work . This study was intended to investigate if ship's engineers had an in creased prevalence of skin disorders and whether any such increased ri sk could be linked to exposure to mineral oils and solvents. A self-ad ministered questionnaire was sent to 700 male seamen from 3 Norwegian ferry companies. Of the 492 respondents, 169 were currently working as ship's engineers and 295 had never worked as ship's engineers. The ou tcomes eczema. acne, dry skin, any dermatitis and hand dermatitis were defined from the questionnaire. Prevalences of these skin disorders w ere compared between the groups. Logistic regression was used to eluci date explanatory variables further. When comparing current ship's engi neers with those who had never worked as ship's engineers, the crude p revalence ratios were 1.7 (95% CI 1.1-2.7) for dry skin, 1.7 (95%CI 1. 1-2.5) for any dermatitis, 1.3 (95%CI 0.66-2.67) for acne and 1.2 (CI 0.61-2.27) for eczema. The risk of these symptoms increased for the en gineers in the regression analysis, after controlling for age, self-re ported use of Stoddard solvent, and the use of fuel oil as a hand clea nsing agent. The increased prevalence of skin disorders found among sh ip's engineers in this investigation may be explained by direct contac t with mineral oils and solvents.