May 30, 2003—Current research by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in workplaces as diverse as industrial plants and school buildings will offer strategic information on measures that FMs and others can take to help prevent work-related asthma.
With this strategic research program, “Research on Occupational Asthma Reduction,” or ROAR, NIOSH is coordinating and synthesizing its field and laboratory investigations to better recognize, evaluate, control, and monitor work-related risk factors that can cause or exacerbate asthma.
The current phase of NIOSH research focuses on three areas where new data will help scientists better determine the prevalence and severity of occupational asthma, and better define exposure-response relationships in workplaces:
Understanding workplace exacerbation of asthma. In a substantial fraction of reported cases, individuals’ occupational asthma is not a new condition created by workplace factors. Rather, it involves a pre-existing condition exacerbated by conditions or circumstances on the job. Scientists have not rigorously explored many key questions: How prevalent is workplace-exacerbated asthma? What circumstances in the workplace setting are associated with it? How accurate is the system for self-reporting of cases? Under a contract with a health maintenance organization, NIOSH will survey adults who have reported they have asthma and will investigate whether workplace exacerbation contributes to the worsening of the disease.
Investigating asthma in the non-industrial work environment. NIOSH is investigating risk factors for occupational asthma in non-industrial work settings, and to develop “indices” of exposure that can generally be used to determine if an indoor work environment poses the risk of job-related asthma.
Advancing medical monitoring for workers exposed to diisocyanates. Under a new agreement, NIOSH is collaborating with companies and employees in the chemical industry to evaluate current medical monitoring for persons occupationally exposed to diisocyanates, the most commonly used class of chemicals reported to cause occupational asthma.
The ROAR program is part of NIOSH’s research under the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA), which identifies occupational asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as one of 21 priority areas where new research will do the most to prevent job-related illnesses and injuries. For further information visit NIOSH/NORA.
