Work-exacerbated asthma

Abstract

Asthma is a very common disease in adults, including in those who work outside the home. Work-related asthma refers to asthma that is either caused by or worsened by something at work. It is very important to know whether someone has work-related asthma because there are specific ways to manage it. There are two types of work-related asthma: occupational asthma and work-exacerbated asthma. Occupational asthma is when something at work causes you to have new onset asthma. Work-exacerbated asthma (WEA) means the asthma you already have been diagnosed with is being made worse from something at work. Typically this occurs when substances present in that workplace trigger asthma symptoms. This fact sheet will tell you more about WEA.