CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 81Occupational exposure and asthmaAsthma and respiratory diseasesOccupational Health and Safety in Workplaces

Excess incidence of asthma among Finnish cleaners employed in different industries

Open access
Karjalainen, A., Martikainen, R., Karjalainen, J., Klaukka, T., Kurppa, K.·2002·European Respiratory Journal
DOI 10.1183/09031936.02.00201002
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

The incidence and risk of asthma among female cleaners employed in different industries was explored. An increased risk of asthma has been associated with the cleaning profession, in some but not all studies. All Finnish females employed as cleaners and all those employed in administrative work were followed for asthma incidence through a record linkage in 1986–1998. An individual was defined as an “incident case of asthma” if they received rights for special reimbursement of asthma medication from the national health insurance or were recognized as having occupational asthma. Age-adjusted relative risks (RR) were estimated for cleaners in comparison with those employed in administrative work. There were 2,414 and 5,235 cases of asthma among the cleaners and administrative workers, respectively. The RR was 1.50 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.43–1.57) in cleaners. The risk was increased in cleaners working in nearly all major sectors of economic activity, but cleaners employed by companies concerned with the manufacture of basic metals (RR 2.47; 95% CI 1.68–3.64) and food products (RR 2.19; 95% CI 1.69–2.85) had the highest risk. Only 25 of the “cases of asthma” among cleaners had been recognized as being occupational asthma. It could be concluded that cleaners have an increased risk of persistent adult-onset asthma. Factors inherent to the environment where cleaning is performed or differences in the cleaning agents used may explain the observed differences between industries.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1183/09031936.02.00201002

Cites

18 of 18 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Epidemiological studies suggest that cleaning product exposure may be linked to the onset or worsening of respiratory symptoms and asthma.

    “Epidemiological studies suggest that exposure to cleaning products can be associated with the development and/or exacerbation of respiratory symptoms and asthma [15–18].”

    From Occupational exposure and health risks of volatile organic compounds of hotel housekeepers: Field measurements of exposure and health risks (2021) · cites this paper as [16]

    The Abstract reports increased incidence of adult-onset asthma among Finnish female cleaners, and the Discussion suggests that differences in cleaning agents may partly explain the risk. The study did not establish an association with exposure to specific cleaning products or examine exacerbation of existing asthma or respiratory symptoms. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [12]12. Rothman KJ, Greenland S. Modern Epidemiology. 2nd Edn. New York, Lippincott Raven, l997.
  2. [19]19. Gautrin D, Bernstein IL, Brooks S. Reactive airways dysfunction syndrome, or irritant-induced asthma. In: Bernstein IL, Chan-Yeung M, Malo JL, Bernstein D, eds. Asthma in the Workplace, 2nd Edn. New York, Marcel Dekker, 1999; pp. 565-593.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Karjalainen, A., Martikainen, R., Karjalainen, J., Klaukka, T., & Kurppa, K.
Affiliations
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FI)
ORCID
Venue
European Respiratory Journal
Publisher
European Respiratory Society (ERS)
Published
2002-01
Volume
19
Issue
1
Pages
90-95
ISSN
  • 0903-1936 (ISSN-L)
  • 1399-3003
DOI
10.1183/09031936.02.00201002
OpenAlex
W2170529025
Semantic Scholar
bb4aab4d93309c005ed2a0c263102625edad0da4
Cited by
81
References
18
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 3
FWCI
4.90
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • European Respiratory Journal (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Occupational exposure and asthma
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Asthma and respiratory diseases
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Safety in Workplaces
Keywords
asthma incidence, cleaning workers, occupational asthma, female workers, basic metals industry, food industry, cleaning agents, adult-onset asthma, administrative workers, industry differences
MeSH terms
Adult, Asthma, Female, Finland, Humans, Industry, Middle Aged, Occupational Diseases

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review