Hazards
Asthma - sources of information
Australia
- National Asthma Council Australia - a not-for-profit body, provides information on asthma
- Bulletin 59 (April 2008): Occupational asthma in Australia [pdf], produced by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
UK - Health and Safety Executive
The HSE, the UK's OHS Authority, has website specifically on Occupational and Work-Related Asthma. It has four major parts to it:
- Your trade - information and advice for jobs with the highest rates of occupational asthma: bakers, vehicle spray painters, solderers, woodworkers, healthcare workers, laboratory animal workers, agriculture workers, and engineering workers.
- For employers - information, legislation, health surveillance and reporting
- About Asthma - Symptoms, Occupational asthma and Work-related asthma, and
- Case Studies - a number of these covering bakers, woodworkers, health care workers, and working with isocyanates
as well as resources, FAQs and links to other related sites.
The HSE also targets asthma, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), as part of its Disease Reduction Program, and has a webpage specifically addressing this.
UK: Occupational asthma guides
The British Occupational Health Research Foundation (BOHRF) has published two asthma guides. The first, backed by UK union council TUC and the HSE, is a guide for employers, workers and their representatives, covers types and causes of work-related asthma, how to spot problems at work and what to do if someone developed work-related asthma. A second guide, published by BOHRF with HSE backing, aims to help doctors and practice nurses identify the cause of asthma when diagnosing patients, especially where the disease may be traced to the workplace. The guidelines ask doctors and practice nurses to help prevent occupational asthma by, for example, asking patients about the nature of their work and their workplace.
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Occupational asthma: A guide for employers, workers and their representatives [pdf], and
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Occupational asthma: Identification, management and prevention: evidence based review and guidelines.
US: NIOSH
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) asthma website: a resource for preventing occupational asthma.
Also from the US, California's OSHA:
Ten steps to protect workers from asthma