Asthma Exacerbated at Work

Details

• Personal Author:
  Henneberger, Paul K. ; Wagner, Gregory R.
• Description:
  Exacerbation of asthma can result from exposures at home, at work, in the outdoor environment, and in public buildings. There is general agreement in clinical practice that troublesome home environmental exposures should be avoided; physicians often advise asthma patients to rid their homes of carpets, drapes, and other furnishings that might be repositories for allergens. Asthma-related exposures in the work environment are less frequently addressed, because exposures are often beyond the control of the individual patient and an employer mayor may not accept their responsibility or have the ability to control exposures. The issue of an affected employee's right to workplace accommodation or compensation further clouds the issue. Specific studies of asthma exacerbated by workplace exposures are limited in number. In many studies of work-related asthma, work-exacerbated asthma (WEA) is not clearly differentiated from asthma with a work-related onset. For example, the European Community Respiratory Health Survey classifies participants by their current or most recent job, for those who are no longer employed, or by the job they left due to health problems (1, 2). The conditions of that job are then used to determine whether the subject was at risk for exposure to asthma agents; this information is used to determine whether the asthma was work-related. In a population-based study conducted in Norway, the researchers asked participants whether they had ever had respiratory symptoms in relation to work (3). While these studies are good for identifying the full impact of work on asthma, they do not separate cases characterized by work-related exacerbation of existing asthma from those characterized by work-related onset of asthma. Other investigators have defined and studied WEA as a separate subcategory within the larger category of occupational asthma or work-related asthma. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Asthma Asthma, Occupational Environmental Exposure Environmental Monitoring Hazardous Substances Hypersensitivity Irritants Occupational Diseases Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Allergens Bronchial-asthma Environmental-exposure Exposure-assessment Health-hazards Occupational-diseases Occupational-exposure Occupational-hazards Occupational-health Respiratory-irritants Respiratory-system-disorders Work-environment Worker-health Workers

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• ISBN:
  9780824729776
• Publisher:
  Taylor & Francis Group
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Book
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies ; OD - Office of the Director
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20030415
• Citation:
  Asthma in the workplace and related conditions, third edition. Bernstein IL, Chan-Yeun M, Malo JL, Bernstein DI, eds. New York: Taylor and Francis Group, 2006 Jan; :631-639
• Editor(s):
  Bernstein IL; Chan-Yeung M; Malo JL; Bernstein DI
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• NORA Priority Area:
  Disease and Injury: Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Asthma in the workplace and related conditions, third edition
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ce4b85311370c91995815d8c94780062c0d2562647601177acec52b695ead5d73dbd5f33da14c3c9b57992c01f09d5f74250089975349798ddc729e994825d81
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/191049/cdc_191049_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.03 MB ]