Exposure to different gases air pollutants and substances at work is responsible for about one in seven of severe asthma attacks suffered by people of working age, according to a study just published.
Its aim was to identify occupational hazards of severe asthma attack and identify risk factors at work.
This studied data on 966 working adults with asthma, aged between 20 and 44 years and who participated in the European Respiratory Health Survey.
After accounting for potential confounding factors such as smoking and sex, the researchers found that low and high levels of exposure to dust from organic substances were associated with an increased relative risk (RR) of severe asthma attacks between the 1.7 and 3.6 times.
Exposure to high levels of mineral dust and high levels of gasoline and fumes also associated with a significantly increased risk of severe exacerbations, with a RR of 1.8 and 2.5, respectively.
These data concern, especially considering that dermatitis and asthma, are among the most common occupational asthma diseases.
To change this situation, it would be very interesting to develop similar programs in Spain Asthma Enterprises, which aims to improve the environment in the workplace, benefiting employees and customers.
This research involved scientists from the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) of the Municipal Institute of Medical Research (IMIM-Hospital del Mar), the Center for Biomedical Research Network Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP) and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, all of Catalonia, together with other Galdakao Hospital and researchers from the United States, Greece, Sweden, Britain, Holland, Germany and Italy.
