Perfumes and fragrances used in personal care products, cleaning products, and air fresheners in the workplace can cause or trigger asthma. They are made up of many different chemicals, including several known to cause asthma, even in people who have never had asthma before.
WRAPP has found over 250 people reporting work-related asthma from fragrance exposures in many indoor work settings – including schools, hospitals, offices, and manufacturing.
New fact sheets for workers and employers explain work-related asthma, how it can be prevented from fragrance and perfume exposures, and what to do if a worker experiences symptoms. They include a model fragrance-free policy that can be customized for any workplace.
THURSDAY, (HealthDay News) -- Wheezing and coughing on the job from work-related asthma is more common than you might think, according to a new U.S. health report.
Almost 16 percent of American adults with asthma either developed the condition on the job or have asthma symptoms made worse by conditions in their workplace, said Dr. Jacek Mazurek, lead author of a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That adds up to an estimated 1.9 million cases of work-related asthma in the 22 states that were part of the CDC study.
"Work-related asthma is associated with increased disability, mortality, and adverse social and economic outcomes," said Mazurek, a lead research epidemiologist with the division of respiratory disease studies at the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Many people who have asthma flare-ups at work experience poor quality of life, loss of income and unemployment, he added.
The new findings are published in the April 10 edition of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Overall, about one in 10 Americans has asthma, researchers found.
Rates of work-related asthma for on-the-job adults range from 23 percent in Missouri and 21 percent in Wisconsin down to 9 percent in Hawaii, according to CDC poll data gathered from 22 states in 2012. Twenty-one of those states had rates higher than 13 percent.
Asthma attacks occur when the airways constrict in response to some sort of environmental irritant, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Triggers can include allergens, dust, smoke, fragrances and chemicals.
There are two main types of work-related asthma, said Dr. Susan Tarlo, a respiratory physician and a professor of occupational and environmental health at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
Asthma that has been caused by work conditions is called occupational asthma, while existing asthma that is triggered by conditions at work is called work-exacerbated asthma, Tarlo said.
"Work-exacerbated asthma is much more common," she said. "We've seen a decline in occupational asthma over time, but work-exacerbated asthma has continued to be common."
