Responding to employee occupational health concerns about a correlation between superglue production and asthma cases

Epidemiologic Study of Asthma and Superglue

When employees came to them with concerns regarding recent diagnoses of asthma, an adhesives manufacturer knew the responsible course of action was to determine if their product adversely affected employees. They hired our ChemRisk team to assess the association between asthma and occupational exposure to methyl cyanoacrylate (MCA) and ethyl cyanoacrylate (ECA), the key components in superglue.

We performed an epidemiologic study, reviewing employee medical records and occupational histories covering a period of about 17 years for 450 employees. Additionally, we reviewed air sampling data to determine if potentially hazardous levels of MCA and ECA were present at the site. Conducting cohort and a case-control analyses, we compared suspected cases of asthma to employees whose pulmonary function tests remained within normal limits throughout their employment.

Our analysis showed no evidence of an association between short-term or peak exposures to MCA or ECA and an increased risk of pulmonary obstruction. However, results suggested that persons occupationally exposed to cyanoacrylates were more likely to experience reversible eye or upper airway irritation than persons who were unexposed.

In addition to reassuring both the manufacturer and employees, this study was the first to investigate the adverse respiratory effects of occupational exposure to either MCA or ECA in which the findings were peer-reviewed and published.