Asthma caused by peracetic acid-hydrogen peroxide mixture.

Thorough preventive measures against potential patient infections caused by endoscopic material has become a priority in hospitals and has pushed hospital care personnel to use increasingly more powerful disinfectant products with much longer contact periods, which has been responsible for a deterioration in their health. Among chemical disinfectants, formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde were the most widely used for reducing microbial contamination responsible for infectious accidents following invasive endoscopies. At present, oxidizing agents such as PA-HP, have replaced them but are known to be ineffective for the prion inactivation cycle and to have toxic effects on patients, nursing staff and the environment. PA-HP is officially recommended with respective concentrations of 0.08% and 1% for best sterilization of germs responsible for infections and on biofilm (organic polymer sticking to a surface). Occupational asthma has been documented in nurses exposed to solvents such as formaldehyde but has not yet been described in workers exposed to PA-HP. We report the cases of two subjects who developed cough, wheezing and shortness of breath after being exposed to PA-HP vapors.