Abstract
Aim: to review the causes and outcomes of teachers and assistants with validated occupational asthma referred to the Birmingham Occupational Lung Disease clinic 2000-2020.
Methods: Inclusion criteria; teachers with occupational asthma validated by at least one Oasys score from serial PEF records.
Results: 32 teachers met the inclusion criteria. All 3 Oasys criteria were present in 20 (specificity100%), 2/3 in 8 (specificity 98%) and 1/3 in 4 (specificity 93-97%). SIC was positive in 8/9, 1 was meaningfully negative (figure). The most common cause was the building in 14, either construction related (particularly acylate adhesives), or during deterioration, from water leaks and reconstruction. Materials used during teaching included woods, solder fluxes, hairdressing bleaches and lime (6) and chloramines from school pools 4 in swimming teachers and 1 teacher in an adjacent classroom. Photocopiers and cleaning agents were the cause in 8. 20 were successfully relocated either within or to other schools, source control helped in 5, 4 retired and 3 were unemployed at follow-up.
Conclusion: The school building was the commonest cause of occupational asthma in teachers, with a high rate of successful relocation. The figure shows the Oasys ABC plots in a technology teacher working in a water-damaged building with negative SICs to MDF, solder flux, benzalkonium Cl and PVA. He used the same materials when the school was relocated showing resolution of his occupational asthma.
Footnotes
Cite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2021; 58: Suppl. 65, PA1899.
This abstract was presented at the 2021 ERS International Congress, in session “Prediction of exacerbations in patients with COPD”.
This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).
- Copyright ©the authors 2021
