HEALTH & WELLBEING: DEB
MY HANDS MATTER
Speaking Out about Occupational Skin Disorders (OSDs).
P
aul Jakeway, Marketing Director at skin care expert
Deb, highlights the risks that employees face at
work each day by understanding the experiences of
industrial workers, and explains why encouraging them to
speak out about the health of their skin is critical.
OSDs are the second most common work-related
health problem in Europe1, with up to 40% of workers
suffering from a skin issue at some point in their working
life2. But there is often a lack of dialogue on the issue of
occupational skin health.
In fact, the problem is worse than you might think — it is
possible that the incidence of OSDs may be underestimated
by 10 to 50 times 3 . And this can only be changed by helping
employees to speak out about their skin health.
This often invisible topic needs to be made visible. It is
critical that workers share their perspectives with Health &
Safety Managers so that its importance can be realised, and
that’s why we talked to a range of employees from different
professions to understand their experiences with skin
health and OSDs.
Skin health matters – don’t leave it too late
Many workers fail to realise that skin health is important
until it is too late. But that is changing slowly, as Lee, a
27-year-old bricklayer, knows from the poor health of his
father’s hands.
“When your hands are sore or cracked, you can’t grip as
tight because that’s when the most pain comes,” Lee says.
“If you haven’t looked after your hands anyway, you just
dread the day ahead to be fair. Creams are available onsite,
but not many people use them. They’re more of
an afterthought.”
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HSE INTERNATIONAL
“It is not until later in life that you find out how
detrimental a work-related skin problem can be,” he
explains. “I definitely wouldn’t want my children to have the
same type of hands as what my father has. Improving our
skin health at an earlier age is massively important.”
Avoiding the consequences of OSDs
Employees often overlook the longer-term consequences
of poor skin health. And this ties into the issue of workers
ignoring the skin care provisions available to them in the
workplace. Geoff, a 65-year-old printer, knows more than
most about the effect OSDs can have on workers when this
happens.
“Working in a packaging factory, we print around 20,000
boxes a day,” says Geoff. “I have heard of people suffering
from skin problems at work due to working with chemicals
— especially oils. There are a lot of risks.”
“I should use moisturising creams,” he continues. “I don’t
because I find them very difficult. They take a long time
to be absorbed into the skin, and they leave your fingers
greasy.”
Geoff is quite clear on the impact OSDs can have on
workers, involving “time off work and loss of earnings, so
that affects the families of the workers. It can affect you
mentally, as well. I’ve seen some skin disorders where your
hands crack and it’s seriously demoralising. It was so severe
they couldn’t grip. Not being able to make a cup of tea, not
being able to hold a knife and fork properly — all these
things affect the mental state of someone.”