Aim of the special session Intolerance may develop to various everyday environmental exposures at levels that are well below those known to cause adverse health effects. Reactions initiate typically from odorous substances, but also from non-perceivable factors considered harmful to health, e.g. electrical devices. Reactions range from unpleasant sensations and annoyance to multi-organ symptoms, severe disability, and major restrictions in daily life and work. Symptoms often lead to exposure assessments at work and may result in excessive actions to eliminate minor exposures. In environmental intolerance, occupational health care is the front line actor in primary and secondary prevention, and support of recovery.

Markku Sainio¹, Anna-Sara Claeson², Christoph van Thriel³, Kenichi Azuma⁴, Lena Hillert⁵, Martin Tondel^6,7

¹Work Environment, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland

²Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Sweden

³Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, TU Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany

⁴Kindai University Faculty of Medicine, Osakasayama, Japan

⁵Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

⁶Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden

⁷Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden