Work Related Asthma

Published on:

By: Adam Smith

In: General Health, Health Surveillance

Work related asthma

There is no universally accepted definition of work related asthma. It is appropriate to consider it as asthma that is either caused or made worse by work factors. If asthma symptoms worsen when at work and improves when not at work there is likely to be an occupational cause.

Asthma is an incredibly common diagnosis to the extent that a misplaced casual attitude can be assumed.

Asthma UK estimates that 1:11 of the population is affected with asthma, 1:12 adults are receiving treatment for asthma in the UK. About £1 billion each year is spent by the NHS on asthma treatment. There is medical evidence that indicates approximately one week sickness absence per year is likely to occur in those with moderate severity (there are clear clinical evidenced based guidelines to establish the severity level) asthma, with or without an occupational cause.

To extrapolate from the above figures that relate to work related asthma is difficult. This is because the occupational effects are not routinely collected or understood. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) indicate that there has been no change in the reporting of new cases of work asthma by physicians in the last 10 years. Therefore, have improvements to the control of substances at work known to cause asthma not been achieved or is it that knowledge of occupational causes and medical investigations to establish an occupational cause have improved?

Occupational asthma is triggered by the breathing in of substances at work that have an allergy or irritant effect or both of these effects so asthma is the result of irritation or an allergic response or a combination of both these physical reactions.

The most common occupational causes include isocyanates and flour, cleaning products, wood dusts and enzymes (amylase). It is estimated that there are about 3-400 causes of occupational asthma. The following link gives you more details about occupational causes of asthma http://www.hse.gov.uk/asthma/. The occupations with the highest number of new cases are vehicle paint technicians, bakers and flour confectioners.

Given that many of the causes of occupational asthma are recognised it should be then possible to reduce the occurrence. It is really important to identify workers with occupational asthma at the early symptom stage and to establish the causative agent(s) as this influences the long-term health and quality of life outcomes. There is evidence that points to the diagnosis of occupational asthma being missed or delayed. It should be noted that non-occupational caused asthma can be aggravated by non-substances that may be encountered at work such as stress and temperature.

Hazard identification and risk assessment are essential processes for a business to understand if they have any substances that have the potential to cause work related asthma. A simple way of checking is to check this list http://www.hse.gov.uk/asthma/asthmagen.pdf

and/or look for the R42 phrase on the label.

If such substances are found then give us a call to discuss respiratory health surveillance which is designed to pick up early warning signs to facilitate early diagnosis and implement methods to reduce the amount of exposure to the substance.

Anna Harrington

Occupational Health Adviser

Request a Callback