There are 18 occupations in total that have been shown to be linked to increased asthma risk but the research team, led by Imperial College London, said other, less common jobs that didn’t crop up in their research are also risky.
The findings of their study, published in the BMJ journal Thorax, said one in six cases of adult asthma could be work-related. It involved almost 9,500 adults born in 1958 who have been participating in the National Child Development Study, a project that analyses long-term health.
Participants were questioned on their job and job histories, and also about any asthma or bronchitis symptoms at specific ages. Around 2,000 people in the study who had symptoms of asthma before the age of 16 were excluded before the research team put the rest through tests for allergen sensitivity and lung function at ages 42-45.
The tests showed that 9% of participants had developed asthma after the age of 16 with approximately 16% of adult-onset asthma linked to workplaces.
Using the Asthma Specific Job Exposure Matrix (ASJEM), which outlines the 18 high-risk substances that can lead to workplace exposure to asthma, the study concluded that 18 specific occupations were linked to adult-onset asthma. Cleaning jobs and jobs where workers were exposed to cleaning agents were the most common with products such as flour, metal, textiles and enzymes also linked to higher asthma risk.
Interestingly, the study revealed that farmers face a much higher risk of developing adult-onset asthma as those who work in offices. Other less common jobs with high risks of exposure to the condition included labourers, bouncers and security guards.
Asthma UK and the Colt Foundation funded the Imperial College London study.