Asbestosis is prevalent in a variety of construction industry trades

A diagnosis of asbestosis, which is a long-latency, fibrotic lung disease, has implications for the patient in terms of prognosis, treatment and compensation. Identifying and quantifying asbestos exposure is difficult without a detailed occupational history, and the threshold dose of asbestos required to cause asbestosis is not well understood. We reviewed all cases of asbestosis diagnosed between 2001 and 2016 at the Birmingham Regional NHS Occupational Lung Disease Service to determine the industries and occupations most frequently implicated in causation, in order to help clinicians identify where asbestosis might enter the differential diagnosis for a patient with chronic respiratory symptoms. A variety of construction trades were frequently reported including carpenters and joiners, pipe fitters, laggers, labourers, painters and shop fitters. Traditionally heavily exposed occupations such as shipbuilding were not commonly seen.