Detergent exposure hard on workers' lungs: studies

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who work in detergent factories are at increased risk of developing respiratory problems, including asthma, probably from exposure to chemicals contained in detergent, two new studies hint.

But a spokesman for the detergent industry argues that the findings from these studies don't apply to the US and European detergent industries at large. "Over the years, the detergent industry has developed successful product stewardship programs to promote the safe use of enzymes, using appropriate risk assessment and risk management strategies to avoid unacceptable risks in the workplace," Richard Sedlak, vice president of technical and internal affairs for The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA), said in a prepared statement.

While the author of one of the new studies agrees that the industry overall has done a good job protecting workers, he said regulatory agencies' current exposure standards are too high.

Exposure to chemicals found in powdered detergent was first recognized in 1969 to cause job-related asthma. Since then, the industry has introduced measures for limiting workers' exposure, although outbreaks of occupational asthma still occur.

In the latest issue of the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Dr. Frits van Rooy of the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences in Utrecht, The Netherlands, and colleagues note that workers exposed to detergents in liquid form are not considered to be at risk of these lung problems. But their findings suggest that they should be.

In a related paper, Dr. Paul Cullinan of Imperial College in London and his colleagues report evidence suggesting that current standards for workplace exposure to powdered detergent chemicals are too high to protect workers from respiratory problems.

The chemicals in question are enzymes, which break down other chemicals, and hence help remove stains. The four types of enzymes used in detergents include proteases, which break down proteins; alpha-amylases, which break down starch; lipases, which break down fat; and cellulases, which break down cellulase, a major component of plants.

Cullinan and his team looked specifically at the relationship between lower or upper respiratory disease and exposure to proteases. They compared 570 workers in a European detergent factory who had developed respiratory problems ranging from runny, itchy noses to asthma, to an additional 2,137 workers with no respiratory disease.

Workers in areas where protease exposure was the highest were at double the risk of lower respiratory disease, Cullinan and his team found, while even lower exposures increased the risk of upper respiratory problems.