100 - Asthma in the Workplace

Abstract

Work-related asthma is a broad term including different asthma phenotypes directly caused (occupational asthma) or worsened (work-exacerbated asthma) by exposures at the workplace. Occupational asthma is a phenotype of asthma directly caused by a specific exposure at the workplace either through sensitization to a specific agent (sensitizer-induced asthma) or after a single acute or repeated inhalations of irritant agents (irritant-induced asthma). In contrast, work-exacerbated asthma is a phenotype of asthma worsened by a variety of exposures at the workplace but is not caused by exposure to a specific agent. Because approximately 20% of all adult-onset asthma cases are attributable to workplace exposures, work-related asthma represents a major public health concern. The diagnosis of these conditions has tremendous consequences for the workers because a career change is often required in addition to the treatment of the disease. Therefore, all efforts need to be deployed to ensure high diagnostic accuracy. This chapter summarizes the current evidence on the epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, management, prevention, and socioeconomic impacts of sensitizer-induced occupational, irritant-induced, and work-exacerbated asthma.