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Asthma At Work

April 2009

Work-related asthma is the most common on-the-job lung disease in Canada.

Hairdressers can get it. Cleaners can get it. Even bakery workers can get it. What do these workers all have in common? They are all at risk of getting work-related asthma, the most common lung disease on the job.

“Work-related asthma” is also The Lung Association’s theme for World Asthma Day 2009, being held Tuesday May 5. World Asthma Day, organized and sponsored by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), is a partnership between health care groups and asthma educators who have the common goal of raising awareness about asthma and improving asthma care throughout the world.

“It’s estimated that 25% of working adults with asthma have symptoms that are work-related,” says Dr. Susan Tarlo, a medical professor at the University of Toronto and a respirologist who specializes in work-related asthma. “It’s believed that up to 10-15% of new asthma cases in adults can be blamed on something in their patients’ workplace.”

Many things can cause work-related asthma, including dust, mould, fumes and chemicals. There are two kinds of work-related asthma: occupational asthma and work-exacerbated asthma.

Some people develop asthma for the first time because of something at their workplace (for example, paint, detergent or latex). They didn’t have asthma when they started the job, but something at work gave them asthma. This is known as occupational asthma.

In some cases, occupational asthma develops slowly, over many months or years. In other cases (for example, if there’s a chemical spill), it can develop asthma quickly – in a few days.

Some people, who already have been diagnosed with asthma, find that something at work makes their symptoms worse, like pet dander, exercise or extreme temperatures. This is known as work-exacerbated asthma (also known as work-aggravated asthma). People may notice work-exacerbated asthma their first day on the job. It doesn’t need time to develop.

Anyone can get work-related asthma but some jobs put workers at higher risk.
For example, jobs where workers handle or breathe in substances that are know to cause asthma, such as auto-body spray painters, cleaners, farmers and grain workers, industrial bakers, seafood processors, construction workers, hairdressers, wood workers and health-care professionals.

There are hundreds of substances that have been proven to cause work-related asthma, such as cleaning products, wood dust, dyes, smoke and diisocyanates (chemicals found in polyurethane products like flexible and rigid foams, molded parts, paints and varnishes, and building insulation materials).

For more information on work-related asthma, call the Ontario Lung Association’s Asthma Action Helpline at 1-888-344-LUNG (5864) or visit here.

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