ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors provide an account of the history of allergy, asthma, occupational respiratory diseases, and occupational asthma. They also elaborate on the concept that occupational asthma has evolved towards a wider spectrum of conditions labeled “asthma in the workplace.” They outline key advances in the topics since the first edition of this book in 1993 up to the current edition: occupational allergens, nonspecific triggers and irritants as important factors that contribute to airway inflammation; predictive structure-activity relationships of potential causal agents; genetic susceptibility; upregulation of IgE-mediated response by indoor pollutants; relevance of psycho-socioeconomic factors; and outcome according to cessation or diminution of exposure. They finally propose occupational asthma as a model for environmental asthma and, specifically, on what occupational asthma has taught us about environmental asthma: exposure is a more important determinant than personal and genetic factors; irritant exposures can cause asthma (example of reactive airways dysfunction syndrome [RADS]); temporal patterns of asthmatic reactions on exposure to the causal agent; outcome after cessation of exposure; and how to assess impairment/disability.
