Occupational and epidemiology Grand Round

Grand round
Chairs: N. Murgia (Perugia (PG), Italy), S. De Matteis (London, United Kingdom)
Aims: to enthuse and remind a broad range of clinicians about the role of occupational exposures as a cause of respiratory disease; to increase the awareness of clinicians about the roles of environmental and occupational exposures as causes of lung disease; to scrutinise the occupational history of patients; to stress how important it is to talk with respiratory disease patients about their jobs; to appreciate both work-related and non-work-related risk factors in a given patient; to emphasise the importance of certain non-invasive diagnostic tools for occupational respiratory disorders and how these may eventually replace more invasive approaches.

ATS/ERS Statement on occupational burden of respiratory disease P. Blanc (San Francisco, United States of America)
A case of occupational lung disease? Why exposure history is the “sine qua non” in such a diagnosis M. Akgün (Erzurum, Turkey)
A case of occupational wheezing and cough: is it always work-related asthma? X. Munoz Gall (Barcelona, Spain)
A case of occupational lung disease in an office worker: why does it always improve in hospital? J. Hoyle (West Yorkshire, United Kingdom)
A case of occupational interstitial disease: when to invade the lungs and when non-invasive diagnostic investigations may be useful C. Orduz Garcia (Medellin (Antioquia), Colombia)