Background
Approximately 34 percent of Norwegian employees report skin contact with chemicals, according to data from NOA at STAMI. Several of these chemicals can cause skin irritation, contact allergy, and eczema.
About 27 percent of the European population is sensitized to at least one chemical that can cause allergic contact dermatitis, a chronic condition with significant psychosocial and economic consequences. When a worker develops allergic sensitization and eczema, they will experience eczema every time their skin comes into contact with chemicals they cannot tolerate. Contact allergy and allergic eczema are thus disorders that can follow the worker throughout their life.
A number of EU regulations govern the use and exposure to skin-sensitizing chemicals. Despite these regulations, we continue to see new outbreaks of skin sensitization among workplaces and risk groups, which indicates that current legislation and risk assessment methods are not sufficient to protect at-risk workers and the general population.
What STAMI will Investigate in the Project
The main objective of the project is to develop a common risk assessment model for skin-sensitizing substances that can be implemented in EU legislation to protect citizens and workers from developing contact allergy and allergic eczema.
We will map the current regulatory practices for skin-sensitizing substances across the European Union. First, a questionnaire will be prepared and sent to authorities, industry, NGOs, patient organizations, researchers, and clinicians. A thorough collection of relevant EU legislation will be conducted to examine and highlight differences and similarities, as well as to identify regulatory gaps and opportunities for improvement.
Next, we will perform a systematic literature review of current risk assessment methods and experimental human studies to identify knowledge gaps and improvement potential in the methods assessing the risk of developing contact allergy.
Finally, a specific investigation of successes and failures in risk assessments will be conducted to identify regulatory needs and provide recommendations for improvements in risk assessment procedures and legislation.
Project leader: Jose Hernán Alfonso
Project group member: Steen Mollerup
External collaborators:
- Department of Dermatology, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet
- The National Allergy Research Centre (Videncenter for Allergi), Department of Allergy, Dermatology and Venerology, Copenhagen University Hospital Herlev-Gentofte, Gentofte Hospital, Hellerup, Denmark
- Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N, Denmark
- Swiss Centre for Applied Human Toxicology, Switzerland
- Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, Environmental Health Department, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milan, Italy
- Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Financial Contributors: Horizon Europe (EU)
More information about the research program: https://www.eu-parc.eu/
PARC Project Number: Effect RA (P6.3.1b)
More information is to be found on the Norwegian project page.