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Carpenters

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Kanerva’s Occupational Dermatology

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Abstract

Occupational dermatoses are rare in carpenters (3.66 per 10,000 working years in Finland; 7.4 per 100,000 in the UK).

Rough-surfaced timber, soap and detergents, sawdust, mineral wool, wet cement, and organic solvents or oils are the main irritant hazards for the skin.

Callosities in the areas compressed by hand tools, small abrasions, cuts, and stinging wounds are the most common skin lesions in the hands.

Sawdust deriving from tropical hardwood can elicit both irritant contact urticaria and irritant contact dermatitis.

Chromate (incidence rate of 0.43 cases per 10,000 working years in Finland) and epoxy resins, rubber chemicals, and formaldehyde are the most relevant contact allergens for carpenters.

Vacuum installations are crucial to provide a minimized dust exposure at the workplaces.

Carpenters are outdoor workers. Therefore, high sun exposure must be considered as a hazard for developing nonmelanoma skin cancer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dermatological Practice, Stuttgarter Str. 5, D-74653, Kuenzelsau, Germany

    Michael Haeberle

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  1. Michael Haeberle
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Correspondence to Michael Haeberle .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Niedersachsen, Germany

    Swen Malte John

  2. Department of Dermato-allergology, Gentofte Hospital, Hellerup, Denmark

    Jeanne Duus Johansen

  3. Dept. of Dermatology and Allergology, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Thomas Rustemeyer

  4. Dept. of Dermatology and Allergology, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Thüringen, Germany

    Peter Elsner

  5. Department of Dermatology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    Howard I. Maibach

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Haeberle, M. (2018). Carpenters. In: John, S., Johansen, J., Rustemeyer, T., Elsner, P., Maibach, H. (eds) Kanerva’s Occupational Dermatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40221-5_133-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40221-5_133-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40221-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40221-5

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