24.11.10
Workplace asthma costs UK at least £100 million a year
Workplace asthma costs the UK at least £100 million a year and may be as high as £135 million, reveals research published online in Thorax.
An estimated 3,000 new cases of occupational asthma are diagnosed every year in the UK, but the condition is under diagnosed, say the authors.
They reviewed published data on the costs of all asthma and workplace asthma, as well as the impact costs.
The evidence was then used to calculate the costs of workplace asthma on an individual’s ability to work and their wider life, including their use of health services, based on a series of six likely scenarios.
The authors suggest that there is scope for huge savings to be made if steps were taken to reduce the levels of exposure to agents which cause workplace asthma.
“The findings also suggest that the employer should bear more responsibility for establishing approaches to disease reduction by introduction of appropriate exposure control interventions and changes in work processes,” they conclude.
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