Occupational lung disease

Abstract

Some occupational lung diseases are defined by their clinical or pathological nature (e.g. occupational asthma or mesothelioma), while others are defined by their specific etiology (e.g. silicosis, farmer’s lung). Most fall into one of three categories. The first is airways disease, including occupational asthma (induced by a workplace agent), work-exacerbated asthma (preexisting asthma provoked by one or more agents at work), and irritant-induced asthma (initiated by a single, toxic exposure to a respiratory irritant); COPD and obliterative bronchiolitis may arise from workplace exposures, and around 10% of lung cancers have an occupational etiology. The second is parenchymal diseases, incorporating the many types of pneumoconiosis, differentiated by the dust that caused them, and the many types of extrinsic allergic alveolitis (or hypersensitivity pneumonia) categorized by the occupations in which they arise. The third is pleural diseases comprising pleural plaques, diffuse pleural thickening, and mesothelioma.