International Congress London 2016

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Occupational lung disease worldwide

Symposium
Chairs: Elizabeth Fireman (Tel-Aviv, Israel), Johanna Feary (London, United Kingdom)
Aims: It is well known that industrial regulations and permissible exposure limits are rarely followed by the industries in developing countries. The reason for this is that more than 80% of the polluting industries belong to informal sectors. As a result, very little information is available at the government level regarding the numbers and structural and functional patterns of these industries and the kinds of materials that they use. Therefore, occupational respiratory diseases in developing countries largely remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. The evidence to date suggests that industry has an alarming effect on both the health of the workers and the economy of developing countries. The aim of this session is to highlight some of the current issues surrounding occupational respiratory problems in developing countries. Future research directions and treatment policies that will improve diagnosis and prevent occupational respiratory disease will be discussed.

Exposure-associated respiratory diseases in the neglected sectors Subhabrata Moitra (Kolkata, India)
Occupational exposure and obstructive lung diseases: what we can learn from the large-scale European studies Paul Cullinan (London, United Kingdom)
Mitigation of occupational respiratory diseases: role of regional respiratory societies and policies in clinical practice and education Surinder K. Jindal (Chandigarh, India)