{"id":4190,"date":"2022-05-03T11:47:20","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T10:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/guidelines\/occupationalasthma\/"},"modified":"2024-12-10T17:15:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T17:15:03","slug":"occupationalasthma","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/guidelines\/respiratory\/occupationalasthma\/","title":{"rendered":"Occupational Asthma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-alert-red-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>This page was last reviewed 21-05-20<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<title>Occupational Asthma<\/title>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Occupational asthma is common and all primary care health professionals will care for patients who are affected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They characteristically frequently consult their general practitioner or practice nurse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs\" data-active-tab=\"0\"><ul class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__nav-links\"><\/ul>\n<div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__nav-link\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title-wrapper\"><a href=\"#\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title\">Referral Guidelines<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content-wrapper\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All adult asthmatics should be asked&nbsp;&nbsp;&#8220;do your symptoms improve on days away from work or when you are on holiday&#8221;?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Few cases are missed by these questions, but they lack specificity and further tests are required to validate the diagnosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>All patients with suspected occupational asthma should be referred to a specialis<\/strong><strong>t<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most commonly reported occupations are&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>animal handlers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>bakers &amp; pastry makers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>chemical workers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>food processing workers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>hairdressers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>paint sprayers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>nurses and other health professionals;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>timber workers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>welders.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__nav-link\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title-wrapper\"><a href=\"#\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title\">Primary Care Management<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content-wrapper\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Occupational-style serial measurements of peak expiratory flow (PEF) are possible in primary care but they require enthusiasm and attention to detail to be carried out properly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PEF measurements should be made at least four-times daily (or even better two-hourly), over&nbsp;four weeks.&nbsp; All waking and sleeping times should be recorded daily in addition to times of starting and stopping work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Advice and record forms are available on the website&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.occupationalasthma.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">www.occupationalasthma.com<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Obtaining the Material Data Safety Sheet of the suspected agent is very helpful.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__nav-link\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title-wrapper\"><a href=\"#\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title\">Resources and Links<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content-wrapper\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/files\/sites\/2\/Respiratory-Lothian-COPD-Guidance-April-2018-v0-4-Combined-2.pdf\" data-type=\"attachment\" data-id=\"600\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lothian COPD Guidance April 2018 v0 4 Combined<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nice.org.uk\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nice.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sign.ac.uk\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.sign.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.occupationalasthma.com\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.occupationalasthma.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Respiratory ORD Occupational Asthma (www.occupationalasthma.com)<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hse.gov.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Respiratory ORD Health and Safety Executive (www.hse.gov.uk)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This page was last reviewed 21-05-20 Occupational Asthma Occupational asthma is common and all primary care health professionals will care for patients who are affected. They characteristically frequently consult their general practitioner or practice nurse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":4381,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[599],"class_list":["post-4190","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-occupationalasthma"],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"NHS Lothian","author_link":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/author\/nhs-lothian\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":" <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/category\/respiratory\/occupationalasthma\/\" rel=\"tag\">Occupational Asthma<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"This page was last reviewed 21-05-20 Occupational Asthma Occupational asthma is common and all primary care health professionals will care for patients who are affected. They characteristically frequently consult their general practitioner or practice nurse.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4190"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21859,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4190\/revisions\/21859"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}