Occupational asthma due to EPO 60.

Case report A 44 year old mould maker and fitter who had worked in the same job for six years presented with a two year history of chest tightness. He made wooden model components to which strips ofcarbon fibre were fixed by applying an epoxy resin system with its curing agent, a polyamine EPO 60. These were then baked in an oven at 180°C. Initially his respiratory symptoms occurred in evenings after work, but during the previous year his symptoms had deteriorated and he had developed wheezing and chest tightness on waking in the morning as well as after work in the evening. His symptoms resolved when away from work, at weekends and on holidays, and when he avoided exposure to the hardening agent at work. He had had no important respiratory or other illnesses in the past and had no personal or family history ofasthma or hay fever. He smoked one ounce of tobacco a week. When seen initially his forced expiratory volume (FEV,) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were 3 58 1 and 4 41 1, and did not improve after inhalation ofbronchodilator. He had immediate skin prick test responses elicited by extracts of house dust, house dust mite, and dog hair (Bencard). He was admitted to hospital for inhalation tests. On separate days, in a single blind fashion, he was exposed to the epoxy resin alone and to the resin with EPO 60 by brush painting for periods of 20 minutes in a specially designed exposure chamber. His FEV, did not change during the 12 hour period after exposure to the epoxy resin. Exposure to the mixture of EPO 60 and epoxy resin reproducibly c