OCCUPATIONAL RESPIRATORY DISEASE SURVEILLANCE

Other Related Resources

Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Program of the National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH)
NCEH leads CDC's fight against environmental-related respiratory illnesses, including asthma, and studies indoor and outdoor air pollution.

American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) Consensus Statement: Diagnosis and Management of Work-Related Asthma
Chest 2008;134:1S-41S.
The 2008 Consensus Statement was developed by an expert panel and covers issues of assessment, outcome, management, and prevention.

American College of Radiology (ACR)

Assessment of Asthma in the Workplace
Chest 1995;108:1084-1117.
A consensus statement of the American College of Chest Physicians on the approach to assessment and management of asthma in the workplace, intended for pulmonologist, allergists, and specialists in occupational and environmental medicine.

Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC)
The AOEC is non-profit organization committed to improving the practice of occupational and environmental health through information sharing and collaborative research.

Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC) Exposure Codes
An exposure coding scheme which includes agents classified as "known asthma inducers" and is maintained by the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC). To facilitate consistency in agent coding across states, putative causes of WRA for each case are coded using this scheme.

Asmapro: A web server for Occupational Asthma
An occupational asthma diagnostic tool for medical doctors dealing with asthma in the workplace. Over 70 different occupational asthma cases reside in an html-based relational database, and each case can be retrieved by case id, by the agent (over 350 different agents are listed), or by patient's job (more than 140 different jobs are registered).

Black Lung Benefits Act (BLBA)
A Department of Labor compliance assistance resource.

Black Lung Clinics Program
The Black Lung Benefits Reform Act of 1977 (Public Law 95-239), as amended February 27, 1985, reinstated an authority of the Federal Mine and Safety Act for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to support clinics to evaluate and treat coal miners with respiratory impairments.

British Occupational Health Research Foundation (BOHRF)
Includes evidence-based guidelines for the prevention, identification, and management of occupational asthma (2004/2005).

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
BLS Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (IIF) Program
A program that provides data on illnesses and injuries on the job and data on worker fatalities.

Campaign to End Black Lung Now and Forever
A Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) safety and health topic.

Cleaning products and work related asthma (abstract)
J Occup Environ Med 2003 May;45(5):556-563.
State-based surveillance systems for work-related asthma in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New Jersey were used to identify cases of asthma associated with exposure to cleaning products at work.

Clinical Evaluation, Management, and Prevention of Work-Related Asthma
Am J Ind Med 2000 Jan;37(1):121-41.
A practical stepwise organization of the diagnostic evaluation of work-related asthma, used by primary care physicians and physicians specializing in occupational diseases and asthma.

Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE)
CTSE is a professional association of over 1,000 public health epidemiologists working in states, local health agencies, and territories. CSTE members have surveillance and epidemiology expertise in a broad range of areas, including Occupational Health.
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), Occupational Health Indicators, 2000–2005.

Department of Labor (DOL)

A descriptive study of work-aggravated asthma
Occup Environ Med 2004 Jun;61(6):512-517.
A better understanding of work-aggravated asthma, as well as work-related new-onset asthma, is needed to aid in prevention efforts.

Diagnosing Work-Related Asthma
An on-line Continuing Medical Education (CME) developed by the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, Safety & Health Assessment & Research for Prevention (SHARP) Program (2006).

Federal Mine Safety & Health Act of 1977

Guidelines for Assessing and Managing Asthma Risk at Work, School, and Recreation
Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2004;169:873–881.
American Thoracic Society statement, providing health care practitioners, workplace managers, school administrators, and the general public with the issues and guidelines that impact patients with asthma in the workplace, school, and recreation.

Haz-Map®
An occupational toxicology database (of chemicals, jobs, and diseases) designed to link jobs to hazardous job tasks which are linked to occupational diseases and their symptoms.

Medical Screening/Surveillance
An Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety and health topic.

Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)

Mine Data Retrieval System (DRS)
The Mine Data Retrieval System of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) permits miners, operators and other interested parties to retrieve mine overviews, accident histories, violation histories, inspector dust samplings, operator dust samplings and employment/production data.

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
A survey of the National Center of Health Statistics (NCHS), designed to collect information about the health and diet of people in the United States.

National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
The NHIS is the principal source of information on the health of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and is one of the major data collection programs of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS)
The NHDS is the principal source of information on characteristics of inpatients discharged from non-Federal short-stay hospitals in the United States.

Occupational Health Indicators: A Guide for Tracking Occupational Health Conditions and Their Determinants
The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), in association with NIOSH, establishes a recommended set of indicators for occupational health surveillance which would, if collected at the state level, assist in the development of programs to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Inspection Data
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides information regarding the establishment being inspected, and other basic information collected for every OSHA inspection.

Social Security Administration (SSA)

42CFR27 Specifications of Medical Examinations of Underground Coal Miners

Spirometry in the Occupational Setting
In 2000, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) published an evidence-based position paper with guidelines for using spirometry in the occupational setting. These guidelines were updated in 2010 and include important changes for spirometry testing in occupational respiratory surveillance programs. Health and safety officers may find these guidelines useful when using spirometry as part of their medical monitoring and screening programs.

Standardization of Spirometry - 2005
Eur Respir J 2005;26:319–338.
In 2005, the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) published a series of joint statements for standardizing pulmonary function testing. These 2005 ATS/ERS standards include spirometry testing and interpretation guidelines that are useful for healthcare practitioners in medical surveillance programs

Work-Related Asthma
Am Fam Physician 2001 Dec;64(11):1839-1849.
Diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and reduction to exposure are all important steps taken by the physician of victims of work-aggravated asthma, occupational asthma, reactive airways dysfunction syndrome, and allergic occupational asthma.

Work-related reactive airways dysfunction syndrome cases from surveillance in selected US states (abstract)
J Occup Environ Med 2003 Apr;45(4):360-368.
Describes the epidemiology of work-related cases of reactive airways dysfunction syndrome (RADS) identified in four states in the United States during 1993-1995 as part of the Sentinel Event Notification Systems for Occupational Risks (SENSOR) Program.