Who may not work with isocyanates — and how you react to symptoms
Health conditions that exclude work and the duty to respond
Introduction
There is no legal requirement for a routine health check before you are allowed to start working with isocyanates. Nevertheless health is completely central in the rules — because certain health conditions rule out the work in advance and because there is a clear obligation to respond if there is suspicion that the work has made someone sick.
No routine inspection – but clear exclusions
Instead of periodic health checks, the rules are based on certain people not being allowed to work with isocyanates at all, because their health makes them particularly vulnerable to exactly these substances.
- 01People with asthma
- 02People with eczema
- 03People with confirmed chronic lung disease
- 04People with a confirmed skin or airway allergy to isocyanates
- 05People with heavy hand sweating (hyperhidrosis manuum)
If you have one of these health conditions, you may not work with isocyanates — however good the protective equipment and ventilation otherwise are. For epoxy the ban covers people with eczema or a confirmed epoxy allergy, and heavy hand sweating rules out both epoxy and isocyanates (BEK 581/2026 Annex 2, item 6). Here prevention comes before protective equipment.
Early signs you should respond to
- 01New or worsening cough, shortness of breath or wheezing in the chest after working with the products
- 02Redness, itching or eczema on skin that has been in contact with the product
- 03Symptoms that get worse over the course of a work week and improve on days off, weekends or holidays
- 04Reactions that develop faster or more severely the more times you are exposed
Notification in case of suspected occupational disease
If there is suspicion that symptoms — particularly asthma-like symptoms — are caused by isocyanate exposure at work, it must be reported to the Danish Working Environment Authority (AES). Reporting is not just a matter of the individual's rights to possible compensation; it also contributes to dangerous work processes and products being discovered and changed before more people are affected.
Why prevention carries more weight than inspection in practice
The combination of no routine monitoring and clear exclusion criteria means that responsibility lies largely in the planning: clarifying health conditions before assigning a person to a task, and reacting quickly and reporting if symptoms arise. It is cheaper and less intrusive than comprehensive screening programs — but it only works if both the individual and the workplace take early signs seriously.
“The best health check for isocyanates is the one you perform on yourself every time you notice that something is different than normal.”