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Work-Related AsthmaAka: Occupational Asthma, Work-Aggravated Asthma, Asthma in the Workplace

Types
1. Work-aggravated Asthma
  1. Preexisting Asthma worsened by workplace exposure
  2. See Intrinsic Asthma
2. Occupational Asthma
  1. Reactive Airway Dysfunction Syndrome
  2. Allergic Occupational Asthma
Risk Factors
1. Atopy
2. Tobacco abuse
Approach
1. Diagnose Asthma
  1. Spirometry
2. Determine if Asthma is work related
  1. Pre-work and post-work Spirometry
  2. Serial peak expiratory flow log qid
3. Determine type of occupational Asthma (see above)
Management
1. See Asthma Management
Prevention
1. Offending irritant or allergen exposure
2. Adequate respiratory protection
Resources
1. National Institute Occupational Safety Health (NIOSH)
  1. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/homepage.html
2. Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA)
  1. http://www.osha.gov/index.html
References

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This page was written by Scott Moses, MD. This page was last revised before 5/10/08, prior to consistent tracking of revision date. This page was last published on 5/10/2008. Please send comments and questions to the editor. Contact information may be found on the page About the Family Practice Notebook. These pages are best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0.