HIGHER FREQUENCY OF ATOPIC-DERMATITIS AND DECREASE IN VIRAL WARTS AMONG CHILDREN EXPOSED TO CHEMICALS LIBERATED IN A CHEMICAL ACCIDENT IN FRANKFURT, GERMANY

Background: In February 1993, a major accident occurred in a chemical plant in Frankfurt, Germany, resulting in the emission of a cloud cont aining 10 m(3) of chlorinated and azo compounds such as o-nitroanisole . An inner zone of the suburb Schwanheim was severely polluted. Object ive and Methods: To assess possible long-lasting effects of this envir onmental accident on the incidence of skin diseases, we examined a tot al of 511 children from the inner and outer zones of Schwanheim 18; mo nths later and compared the findings: to those obtained from a control group of 143 children from the Frankfurt area and South Hessen. For 4 02 children of the exposed group, information about the exposure statu s was available, clearly defining presence or absence in the inner zon e at the time of the. accident. Results: We observed an overall increa se in atopic dermatitis among children present during the accident wit h an odds ratio of 2.34 (95% CI: 1.25-4.76, p value=0.009). The preval ence of atopic dermatitis was most marked among exposed children in th e age group of 6-12 years with a peak of 22.1% compared to 9.2% in the control group and 11.7% among non-exposed children from the outer zon e. All cases of atopic dermatitis were mild, however, and did not requ ire hospital treatment. A history of atopic dermatitis was obtained in 20.3% of all children. Tn the inner zone, 34.2% of the present cases with atopic dermatitis had a previous history of this disease compared to 31% in the outer zone and only 16.2% in the control group. Other s kin diseases, such as birthmarks, congenital skin tumours, psoriasis o r acne, did not differ. except for viral warts (verrucae vulgares). wh ich were much more frequent in the control group. Conclusions: The dat a suggest that acute exposure to a major chemical burden is a risk fac tor that contributes even after the considerable time period of 1.5 ye ars to the exacerbation of latent and also the development of 'new' at opic dermatitis.