Abstract
Educational aims
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To update and enhance understanding of occupational and environmental lung disease.
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To impart practical information about diagnosing these conditions.
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To help refine diagnostic accuracy and thus improve patient care.
Summary Human lungs are exposed to an enormous range of environmental insults, many of which are work-related. Over 250 agents have been identified in the aetiology of occupational asthma, the most common work-related pulmonary ailment. Conversely, a single agent - asbestos - is responsible for a huge range of lung diseases, and is the only known cause of some diseases. Other common environmental lung diseases include pneumoconiosis and extrinsic allergic alveolitis. The pathogenesis of some of these diseases remains obscure and diagnosis may be difficult.
- ©ERS 2007