Occupational lung disease is a term used for a wide range of diseases caused by repeated exposure to harmful particles, gases, vapors or chemicals. The term occupational lung disease covers a number of conditions that affect different parts of the lungs. Occupational lung diseases include occupational asthma that affects the airways, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that refers to narrowing of the airways, occupational alveolitis that involves the air sacs of the lungs, occupational lung cancer, and occupational conditions affecting the lining of the lungs.
Occupational lung diseases have different names based on their cause. For example, occupational lung disease caused by inhaled particles is called pneumoconiosis. A well-known occupational lung disease is black lung (coal worker’s pneumoconiosis) that affects unprotected coal miners. Another occupational lung disease is asbestosis found among people who have worked with asbestos such as shipyards, asbestos mines, or factories that manufacture products using asbestos.
Occupational lung disease can affect anyone. Unsuspecting people who work in office buildings with air conditioning systems contaminated by certain fungi and bacteria can develop the occupational lung disease hypersensitivity pneumonitis. More recently, Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have been diagnosed with a new occupational lung disease called Iraq-Afghanistan War lung injury.
The lung’s natural defense mechanisms to prevent occupational lung disease include creating mucus so that particles can be coughed out, brushing out foreign particles through the cilia that line the airways, and by producing alveolar macrophages or cells that engulf and digest the particles. Occupation lung disease results when these mechanisms are defeated.
Because the type of occupational lung disease can vary widely among people, the type of treatment recommended will also vary. Treatments of occupational lung disease may include medications, procedures, and therapies. When airway clearance techniques (ACT) are recommended, this may include chest physical therapy (CPT). In those instances, the treatment of occupational lung disease should consider use of the Med Systems Fluid Flo® 2500 percussor or the Electro Flo® 5000 airway clearance device, the most powerful CPT available for treatment of occupational lung disease.