Occupational airway diseases

Abstract

Airway disease due to occupational exposure has been ignored until recently. During the last two decades, occupational asthma has become the most prevalent occupational lung disease in developed or industrialized countries. "Asthma-like syndrome" used to describe nonallergic, mild, acute, reversible obstruction has been reported in relation to many organic dust exposure, some have been recognized for a long time such as cotton or grain dust exposure while others are recent such as swine or poultry confinement exposure. In addition, chronic airflow obstruction has been demonstrated as a result of exposure to organic and inorganic dust. In this section these various entities or syndromes will be discussed. © 2005 Hong Kong University Press, HKU. All righrts reserved.