EDITORIAL

Asthma

The continuing challenge to reduce the burden of occupational asthma

M Sim

Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Alfred Hospital, Commercial Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
A/Prof. M Sim
Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Alfred Hospital, Commercial Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia; Malcolm.sim@med.monash.edu.au

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What is the best approach?

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Keywords: occupational asthma; prevention; surveillance

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

With the reduction in the disease burden from the pneumoconioses in recent years, especially in developed countries, occupational asthma has emerged as the occupational lung disease of greatest importance. It is usually the most common respiratory condition reported in occupational disease surveillance programmes and makes a substantial contribution to the burden of asthma in the community, with an estimated population attributable risk of 15% and estimated annual cost to the USA of $US1.6 billion.¹ Therefore, the introduction of prevention strategies to reduce the impact of occupational asthma, should be strongly supported.

The editorial by Snashall in this issue² describes the latest proposal by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) to reduce the incidence of occupational asthma in the United Kingdom.³ This article acknowledges the limited success of past HSC prevention programmes. The proposed Strategy has five components corresponding to the key programmes in Securing health together, the HSC’s . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Abramson, M, Sim, M R (2006). Occupational asthma. Thorax 61: 741-742 [Full Text]