Allergy to laboratory animals: a survey by questionnaire.

A survey carried out on a total of 1,487 individuals showed that, of the 585 who worked with laboratory animals, 19.5% developed moderate to severe allergic symptoms some time after starting employment. The corresponding figure for those who had never worked with animals was 13.4%. The animal worker group contained significantly more individuals with asthma, repeated attacks of sneezing, blocked nose or smarting eyes (alone or in combination), than did the control group. There was no significant difference in terms of the incidence or type of allergy developing after employment between those who did and those who did not report pre-employment symptoms of atopy. 9% of the animal workers had to stop work permanently or temporarily because of their allergy.