Introduction

Occupational skin disease may be defined as any disorder of the skin which is caused by or made worse by work or any workplace activity. There are a number of so called occupational dermatoses some of which are described briefly below. The identification of specific cases of these disorders as occupational will typically be based on a consideration of when the disease first developed, whether the disease improves away from the work environment and whether there is a plausible causative agent present in the work environment which can be linked to the expression of the skin disease ¹.

• Contact dermatitis may be defined as inflammation of the skin resulting from contact with a chemical or physical agent. There are two main forms of the disease. 
• Irritant contact dermatitis (ICD) includes a range of abnormal skin changes due to cell damage by various irritants, and where the changes are non-immunological in nature. 
• In contrast, allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) occurs as an immunological response to an allergen – and therefore only in those susceptible to such a reaction to that specific agent. There is likely to be a delay between initial contact with the allergen and manifestation of the condition, but, once sensitised, any further contact with the allergen is likely to lead to the disease.
• Contact urticaria is a transient immunological response of the skin which typically occurs rapidly following exposure and may resolve soon after exposure ceases.
• Other non-allergic chemically induced dermatoses include folliculitis and acne – inflammation of the skin or hair follicles – and infective skin diseases resulting from exposures to bacteria, fungi or viruses.
• Mechanical skin disease is characterised by skin damage due to mechanical trauma associated with particular occupations – for example, those involving repetitive tasks – and skin neoplasia can result from occupational exposure to various chemical and non-chemical carcinogens.

Estimation of the overall scale of these disease in Great Britain, trends in incidence, and identification of high risk occupations and activities, relies on a variety of sources of data each with different strengths and weaknesses.