Occupational Respiratory Diseases

Materials inhaled in the workplace can lead to all the major chronic lung diseases except those due to vascular disease. The physician should consider the possibility of occupational exposure when a working or retired adult presents with unexplained respiratory illness. Even exposure in office buildings1 and hospitals2 occasionally causes illness. Identifying a workplace-related cause of disease is important because it can lead to cure and to prevention for others. Because of differences in the metabolism and susceptibility of hosts, one occupational agent may cause many diseases, just as cigarette smoke causes several distinct disorders. Conversely, one respiratory disease may have . . .