Occupational Asthma: The Knowledge Needs for a Better Management
Abstract
Occupational asthma (OA) is defined as asthma induced by sensitizer or irritant work exposures (Tarlo et al., 2008) and the costs related to OA patients are greater than those related to non-work-related asthma (WRA) (Lemière et al., 2013). The complete avoidance of exposure is the first measure to be taken, but sometimes may not lead to a complete recovery from asthma (Baur et al., 2012). It can be at the expense of adverse socioeconomic consequences (Vandenplas et al., 2003), and it is not always feasible. Alternative possible measures are reduced exposure to causal agents, education of workers and employers and improvement of the personal protection of asthmatic workers (Lau and Tarlo, 2019).
