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According to a joint statement from the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society published in the ATS, more than 1 in 10 people affecting various non-cancerous lung diseases may be sick due to the inhalation of vapors, gases, dust or vapors at work. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
In "The Occupational Burden of Non-malignant Respiratory Disease: An Official Statement by the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society," 13 clinical experts and researchers from the two respiratory societies reviewed numerous studies of the links between occupational risks. and lung diseases. Studies have been conducted around the world for more than two decades.
The authors included a range of respiratory diseases ranging from asthma and COPD to scarring fibrosis and some infections. They have not studied lung cancer and pleura, the membrane surrounding the lungs, because the professional burden of these conditions, which can be considerable, has already been reported. Similarly, they did not include in their load estimation asbestosis, silicosis and coal pneumoconiosis (black lung), as these diseases are entirely work-related.
"The role of occupational factors in most lung diseases is underestimated," said Paul D. White, MD, MSPH, chief of the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of California in San Francisco, who, along with Carrie A. Redlich, MD, MPH, director of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program at Yale University, led the group's work. "Failure to understand the importance of work-related factors in such conditions hampers diagnosis, treatment and, most importantly, prevention of the disease."
Specifically, the authors estimated the occupational burden of these lung diseases:
- Asthma, 16 percent
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) 14 percent
- Chronic bronchitis, 13 percent
- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, 26%
- Hypersensitivity pneumonitis, 19%
- Sarcoidosis and other granulomatous diseases, 30%
- Pulmonary alveolar protein, 29%
- Community-acquired pneumonia (in adults of working age), 10 percent
- Tuberculosis (in workers exposed to silica dust), 2%.
Dr. Blanc said some of these findings, particularly those related to asthma and COPD, reinforce previous estimates of burden. Other estimates, such as those for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and community-acquired pneumonia in working-age adults, highlight "a recently-badessed magnitude of risk".
Dr. Blanc added that the authors hoped that this statement would lead clinicians to consider not only the respiratory condition, but also the patient's occupation and "will urge decision-makers to take seriously the prevention of such diseases among patients. workers and women around the world. "
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