Occupational dermatoses in farmers - a proposal for diagnostic procedure.

The article presents a proposal for diagnostic procedures in cases of suspected occupational dermatosis in farmers. The process of certifying a disease as occupational is difficult because of lack of the monitoring of occupational risks in private farms; moreover, there is no compulsory medical assessment before one starts work as a farmer. Many patients meet an occupational health professional for the first time when the disease is already advanced and legal action towards obtaining an occupational rent has already been issued. In these circumstances, confirming or rejecting the possible occupational etiology of a given dermatosis is very difficult. This article presents a diagnostic procedure which has been devised by the author and used with some success for two years at the Institute of Agricultural Medicine, Lublin, Poland.