A report issued by two respiratory societies points to the occupational factor in the triggering of non-cancerous lung diseases: one in ten people suffering from it is due to the inhalation of vapours, gases or dusts at their workplace.
An occupational disease is the consequence of exposure, more or less prolonged, to a risk that exists during the usual exercise of a profession. While musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the leading cause of occupational disease in France, people working in agricultural or industrial environments are more likely to be affected by other pathologies, including pulmonary and respiratory diseases.
Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD), Chronic Bronchitis, Scarring Fibrosis and other respiratory diseases are to be feared with regular inhalation of fumes, gases, dust in the workplace. Hence the need for practitioners to pay particular attention when they receive a worker concerned for consultation.
This risk is not insignificant and isolated: according to a joint statement by the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society published in theAmerican Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (ATS), more than 1 in 10 people with non-cancerous lung disease suffer from these inhalations in the workplace.
Underestimated occupational risks
The 13 authors of the report sifted through the results of a dozen studies conducted around the world for more than twenty years and which analyzed all the links between occupational risks and lung diseases.
“The role of occupational factors in most lung diseases is underestimated,” says Dr. Paul Blanc, chief of the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “Failure to appreciate the importance of work-related factors in such conditions hampers the diagnosis, treatment and, more importantly, prevention of other illnesses.”
By analyzing the results, the study authors were able to estimate the occupational burden of these lung diseases. They concluded that 16% of asthma cases, 14% of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and 13% of chronic bronchitis were due to working conditions and the professional environment.
These figures climb further when it comes to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (26%), hypersensitivity pneumonia (19%), sarcoidosis and other granulomatous diseases (30%) or even pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (29%). The researchers also found that these inhalations can cause infectious diseases such as community-acquired pneumonia (10%) and tuberculosis (2%).
Reinforce prevention among the workers concerned
For Dr. Blanc, these results, in particular those on asthma and COPD, reinforce previous estimates of the occupational burden on respiratory and pulmonary diseases. Other estimates, such as those for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and community-acquired acute pneumonia in working-age adults, highlight “a newly appreciated magnitude of risk”.
Certain respiratory conditions have been excluded from the list of diseases studied. This is the case for lung and pleural cancers, but also for asbestosis, silicosis and coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, also called “black lung”, because unlike other lung diseases, these conditions are entirely work-related.
For the authors of the study, these results highlight the need to take into account not only the respiratory status of the patient, but also their profession in order to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases. Dr. Blanc hopes they will “inspire policy makers to take seriously the prevention of these diseases among working women and men around the world”.
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