Wet-work is a key exposure in investigating hand eczema.
Nonoccupational wet-work exposure contributes to the exposure
of an entire day. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the
importance of wet-work occupational dermal exposure and the
subsequent adverse health effects, thereby providing a survey of
the extent of the problem. Many occupational groups including
healthcare workers, hairdressers, food handlers, flower arrangers,
metal workers and construction workers are exposed to wet-work.
Furthermore, in most cases, wet-work exposure is accompanied by
detergents and cleansers, which in turn may aggravate the adverse
effects of exposure. Measuring wet-work exposure might be a
challenging issue in the field of occupational dermal exposure
assessment. Some gaps still exist in dermal exposure measurement
methodology, and as a result, few approaches and models have
been developed to tackle these problems. There is still no validated
instrument to assess wet-work exposure, except the costly, timeconsuming
and imperfect observation and questionnaire methods.
More valid and less-labor techniques are required to measure wetwork
exposure.