Asthma: Environmental and occupational risk factors
Journal
Encyclopedia of Environmental Health
Pages
207-216
ISBN
9780444639523; 9780444639516
Date Issued
2019
Author(s)
Abstract
Asthma is an allergic disease inducing chronic airway inflammation and acute attacks. Asthma not only decreases the quality of life, but also leads to life-threatening events in severe cases. The increasing prevalence of asthma is a worldwide trend both in children and adults. In the past few years, environmental and occupational interventions for asthma are shown to provide additional benefit beyond medical therapies. This contribution summarizes current evidences of environmental and occupational risks for asthma. The environmental factors are distinguished into indoor and outdoor as well as environmental and occupational agents, which in turn are grouped into sensitizers and irritants. The sensitizers cause and trigger asthma activity through the allergic immunization process. Once human beings are sensitized, very low concentration of the specific sensitizers can evoke asthma attack. The irritants damage and stimulate airway mucosa directly without a sensitizing period. Environment-environment interactions exist due to the fact that sensitized airways are hyperresponsive to irritants, and that irritant-damaged mucosa is prone to the penetration of sensitizers, and that irritant can modify allergic response at cellular or genetic levels. The sources and mechanisms of environmental and occupational agents causing asthma, as well as strategies for environmental and occupational prevention and remediation of risk factors are discussed in this contribution. ? 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Publisher
Elsevier
Type
book part