Name: GLOVEJEM & WETJEM

Reference: Lund T, Flachs EM, Sørensen JA, Ebbehøj NE, Bonde JP, Agner T. A job-exposure matrix addressing hand exposure to wet work. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 2019; 92(7):959-966.

Contact information: Esben Meulengrath Flachs, Dept. of occupational and Environmental Medicine, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen

Access: To obtain access to data follow the application procedure on this site. You will find an overview of the access posibilies to the JEM  here  Hent dokument.

Exposure: Self-reported information on “wet hands” and “gloves”.  All together combined into three exposures:

  • Wet hands
  • Gloves
  • Total wet work (wet hands or gloves).

Coverage:  Professions categorized as wet work professions and having wet work > 2 h/day according to the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study.

Job title and industry classification system: DISCO-88

Calendar period: 2000, 2005 and 2010

Measures of exposure:  The self-reported exposures are based on two questions from the national surveys on working environment “Danish work Environment Cohort Study” performed by the National Research Centre for the Working Environment. Question 1: “To which extent do you have wet or moist hands during you working hours?”. Question 2: “Is your skin exposed to protective gloves made of plastic or rubber”. Both based on an 8-hour workday with response categories converted to the following responses: 7 h, 6 h, 4 h, 2 h, 0.1 h and 0 h. Total wet work was created by including the maximal value of either of the two variables. The exposure measurement has a cutoff of 2 h wet work/day.

Professions with a mean of wet hands or glove wear > 0.1 h/day are categorized as wet-work professions. Professions with a mean of wet hands or glove wear < 0.1 h/day are categorized as non-wet work professions. Professions categorized as wet work professions in the range 0.1-<2 h/day are not included in the JEM.

The exposure is categorized into three groups according to the proportion of responses for the professions in the range > 2 h/day:

High exposure: >50% of responses were > 2 h/day

Moderate exposure: 25-46% of responses were > 2 h/day

Low exposure: <25% of responses were > 2 h/day

Uncertainty in exposure measures:  The natural variance in homogeneity for exposures is not included in the JEM.

Demographic dimensions: Sex specific.