Canadian respiratory journal : journal of the Canadian Thoracic Society
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A review of Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) claims in Ontario from 1998 to 2002 showed an unusual spike in the number of claims accepted for work-exacerbated asthma (WEA) in April 2001. ⋯ [corrected] The spike in accepted WEA claims in Ontario in April 2001 was temporally associated with a strike by Toronto District School Board cleaners, suggesting acute symptomatic effects of poor workplace (school) maintenance on asthmatic employees. The WSIB database was sufficiently sensitive to capture this phenomenon.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
A comparison of work-exacerbated asthma cases from clinical and epidemiological settings.
Clinical and epidemiological studies commonly use different case definitions in different settings when investigating work-exacerbated asthma (WEA). These differences are likely to impact characteristics of the resulting WEA cases. ⋯ Findings from both types of studies should be considered when measuring the contribution of work to asthma exacerbations, identifying putative agents, and selecting industries and occupations in which to implement screening and surveillance programs.