Spices bakers

These spiced buns with dried fruit in them are another product with a history. In the Middle Ages it was the custom to make buns with a cross on them. These buns assumed a mystical significance that caused the Cromwell s puritans to ban them, except for immediately before Easter. Small bakers generally keep to this rule while supermarket in store bakeries sell them for a much longer period of time. 

Baker Soaps and detergents, fruit juices, spices, enzymes... 

Allium stracheyi Baker Alliaceae Jimbu pharan Leaves Spice, jaundice and cough... 

Bakers (flour dust) farmers (hay mold) spice and enzyme workers printers (arabic gum) chemical workers (azo dyes, anthraquinone, ethylenediamine, toluene diisocyanates, polyvinyl chloride) plastics, rubber, and wood workers (formaldehyde, western cedar, dimethylethanolamine, anhydrides)... 

Many spices are plant derived and may cause allergic contact dermatitis. A worker in a foodprocessing plant reacted to carnosol extracted from rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) [296]. Sensitivity to spices is covered in more detail in the section entitled Bakers, Chefs and Salad Makers, Sixty spice grinders studied had no allergic skin problems [297], and while I have seen food-processing workers who were allergic to spices, the problem is probably not common. 

For more than a century, spices have been known to cause contact dermatitis. In the first half of this century, spices were reported as significant causes of allergic contact dermatitis, especially in bakers and confectioners. In addition to delayed-type contact allergies, spices may also cause immediate allergies (Niinim i et al. 1981 Thiel and Fuchs 1981). Although spices are relatively rare causes of occupational dermatitis today (Kanerva et al. 1996), they should be taken into consideration when assessing the hand dermatitis of workers exposed to spices. 

Due to the sensitising chemicals they contain, flavours and spices have been a concern, but there are few reports of contact sensitivity to such compounds among bakers. Cinnamon has been noted as a cause of hand eczema among bakers in several case reports (Malten 1979 Dooms-Goossens et al. 1990 Nixon 1995). The patients were patch tested with cinnamon powder. Nixon s patient reacted to balsam of Peru, the perfume mixture, cinnamic alcohol and cinnamic aldehyde. Cardamom has also been described as a contact allergen (Mobacken and Fregert 1975)- Positive patch tests were seen to cardamom powder, 50% cardamom powder in petrolatum, oil of cardamom, delta-carene, dipentene and oil of bergamot. 

The nature of the irritants to be found in bakeries is not well defined in the literature. Most bakeries in Europe are small enterprises, and all employees participate in the necessary, frequent cleaning of equipment and of the bakery itself. There is intense exposure to dust from grains, sugar and spices, and extensive contact with moist items such as dough. Fisher (1982) has provided a list of irritants that may be encountered by bakers. Specialised areas, such as sugar artistry, may involve a risk of physical irritancy, particularly thermal injury (Tacke et al. 1995). 

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