American Journal of Dermatology and Venereology 2014, 3(5): 81-83 DOI: 10.5923/j.ajdv.20140305.01 The Prevalence of Occupational Dermatosis among Workers in Khartoum State’s Tanneries Kamal El-Din Hussein El-Hassan 1 , Yousif M El-Kordofani 1 , Anilkumar Mithani 1 , Tayseer E. E. Diab 2 , Zuhair A. A. Babikir 3 , Ali Thoulifkar A. Imeer 4 , Gamal O. Elhassan 5 , Abdel Khalig Muddathir 6 , Khalid O. Alfarouk 6 , Adil H. H. Bashir 6,* 1 Faculty of Medicine, University of Bahri, Bahri, Sudan 2 Faculty of Medicine, Al-Neelain University, Khartoum, Sudan 3 University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan 4 School of medicine, AL-Yarmouk College, Khartoum, Sudan 5 Uneizah Pharmacy College, Qassim University, KSA 6 Institute of Endemic Diseases, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan Abstract Introduction: Occupational skin disease is any skin disorder which is caused by a person’s work. An existing skin disorder becoming worse by work activities is also considered as occupational skin diseases. Objective: To identify the pattern of occupational dermatosis and other skin diseases in Khartoum State’s tanneries in the period from May to June 2002. Patients & methodology: The survey was performed at Khartoum tannery and White Nile tannery; both located in the central part of Khartoum State. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study. Conclusions: The prevalence of skin diseases collective prevalence 67.4% in Khartoum tannery and White Nile tannery (p>0.05). The prevalence of skin diseases was more in two departments, tanning department and engineering & maintenance department. Skin diseases’ prevailed in the following order: contact dermatitis, urticaria, hand eczema, fungal infection and atopic eczema. This result is consistent with the studies from other counties. These skin diseases were easy to treat, ameliorate and prevent by applying simple measures. Keywords Occupational Dermatosis, Khartoum tannery, White Nile tannery 1. Introductions An occupational skin disease is any skin disorder which is caused by a person’s work. An existing skin disorder becoming worse by work activities is also considered as occupational skin diseases [1]. Occupational dermatosis and other skin diseases (23.4%) are very common, being among the many work-related health hazards encountered by doctors [2–4], ranking second only to musculoskeletal problems (45.3%) [5]. Therefore, there is a pressing need for greater awareness among all those who are in contact with patients having occupational skin disorders; including paramedics, safety representatives and nurses as well as dermatologists and occupational physicians. Accurate figures for the frequency of occupational contact dermatitis in the general population are not known. Some authors estimate the frequency as approximately 10/10000 per year [3]. There are many published surveys, studying the * Corresponding author: Derma55@yahoo.com (Adil H. H. Bashir) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/ajdv Copyright © 2014 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved prevalence of contact dermatitis in factories where there have been dermatitis problems [4]. In certain wet-work jobs such as Lithography, prevalence of low-grade contact dermatitis of the hands is approximate 10% [6–8]. In a Swedish survey, high figures as 21.3% were found for hand dermatitis in cleaners, compared with other occupations of approximately 11% [6]. However, the prevalence of hand dermatitis in women was twice as much as for men. The UK surveillance-reporting scheme for occupational skin diseases (1993-1995), provided these figures: contact dermatitis 79.8%, neoplasias 13.2%, contact urticaria 3%, infective 1.6% and others 4.6%. Also, showed occupations with the highest risk rate (10,000 per year), as follows: hairdressers 10.9, printers 7.1, foundry workers 6.2, beauticians 5.1 and machine tool operators 4.9 /10,000 per year [2]. There is no doubt that occupational contact dermatitis is also very costly to society as a whole, in terms of money and disablement. In the USA alone it has been estimated that the annual cost of disease due to lost productivity, including medical care and disabled payments, may range from $222 to $1000 millions [8]. In the UK it has been estimated that four million working days are lost each year due to employees taking time off work because of skin disorders. Tannery