What role for asbestos in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis? Findings from the IPF job exposures case-control study.

Background: Asbestos has been hypothesised as the cause of the recent global increase in the incidence of 'idiopathic' pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Establishing this has important diagnostic and therapeutic implications. The association between occupational asbestos exposure and IPF, and interaction with a common (minor allele frequency of 9% in European populations) genetic variant associated with IPF, rs35705950, is unknown.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Breathlessness in Older Workers Predict Economic Inactivity. A Prospective Cohort Study.

There is an aspiration to retain increasing numbers of older workers in employment, and strategies to achieve this need to make provision for the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases with age. There is a consistent body of cross-sectional evidence that suggests that patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are more likely to have adverse employment outcomes. We report the findings of the first longitudinal study of this issue.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Welsh slate miners.

Background: Exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) causes emphysema, airflow limitation and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Slate miners are exposed to slate dust containing RCS but their COPD risk has not previously been studied.

Aims: To study the cumulative effect of mining on lung function and risk of COPD in a cohort of Welsh slate miners and whether these were independent of smoking and pneumoconiosis.

Obliterative bronchiolitis in fibreglass workers: a new occupational disease?

Rationale And Objectives: Obliterative bronchiolitis (OB) is a rare disease with a small number of established occupational aetiologies. We describe a case series of severe OB in workers making glass-reinforced plastics.

Methods: Workplace exposures were the likely cause after the independent diagnosis of OB in two workers laying up the fibreglass hulls of yachts; the second worker took over the job of the first after he left following a lung transplant.