IN-DEPTH REVIEW |
Future advances in work-related asthma and the impact on occupational health
Department of Chest Medicine, Hôpital du Sacré-C
ur de Montréal, 5400 West, Gouin Boulevard, Montréal, Québec, Canada H4J 1C5
Work-related asthma (WRA) and WRA-like conditions refer to all situations in which asthma or asthma-like syndromes occur or worsen in the workplace. This occurs in 
10% of all adult-onset asthma subjects. Occupational asthma (OA) is a specific type of WRA that is ‘caused’ by the workplace, being mediated either by an allergic process with a latency period or by a non-allergic irritant-induced mechanism. Personal asthma can also ‘worsen’ at work (work-aggravated or exacerbated asthma), the reasons, mechanisms, extent and consequences of this situation being unknown. The author reviews various aspects of WRA with an emphasis on OA (about which more is known) and proposes key issues that need to be further studied, proposed and applied in at-risk workplaces in order to improve recognition, diagnosis and management of this condition. OA represents a unique situation that, unfortunately, is only very rarely provided to health-care providers: affected workers can be cured with minimal impact on quality of life. All efforts should be made to achieve this goal at an affordable socio-economic cost.
Keywords Airway responsiveness; occupational asthma
Correspondence to: Jean-Luc Malo. Tel: +1 514 338 2796; fax: +1 514 338 3123; e-mail: malojl{at}meddir.umontreal.ca