Surveillance of Work Related and Occupational Respiratory Disease

ROSS, D.J., SALLIE, B.A. MCDONALD, J.C. (1995) SWORD 94 surveillance of work-related and occupational respiratory disease in the UK. Occupational Medicine, 45, 175-178. 

The first element in risk assessment is knowledge of the chemical exposures of a workforce to see if a known sensitizer is present. A chemical becomes accepted as a cause of occupational asthma if there are at least two convincing clinical case reports from independent centres. Specialist clinicians are likely to be aware of the published literature at an early stage and may be a useful source of informal information. There is currently much interest in publishing lists of sensitizers. One is available in a recent textbook (Chan-Yeung and Malo, 1993). The Health and Safety Executive in the UK, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the USA and other agencies may publish lists with updates. Other sources of information on causes are reporting schemes such as SWORD (Surveillance of Work-related and Occupational Respiratory Disease) in the UK (Ross el al., 1995) and SENSOR (Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risks) in some states in the USA (Matte et al., 1990). 

Respiratory sensitisers may be referred to as asthmagens. In 1989 Surveillance of Work Related Respiratory Disease (SWORD) was started and contains reports by respiratory and occupational physicians. 

N10SH. 1999. Work-related lung disease surveillance report 1999. Washington, DC U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Division of Respiratory Disease Studies. DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 96-134. 

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