Lung Disease Data at a Glance: Occupational Lung Disease

• Occupational lung disease is the number one cause of work-related illness in the United States in terms of frequency, severity and preventability.

• Worldwide, about 20 to 30 percent of the male and 5 to 20 percent of the female working-age population may have been exposed to agents that cause cancer in the lungs during their working lives.

• Occupational asthma is the most prevalent occupational lung disease in the United States. Approximately 15 to 23 percent of new-onset asthma cases in the United States are due to occupational exposures. These exposures within the workplace can also aggravate pre-existing asthma.

• The direct cost of occupational injuries and illnesses are estimated at $45.8 billion a year, and the indirect cost may range up to $229 billion. In 2005, more than 4.2 million new non-fatal injures and illnesses were reported in private industry. Also, 5,702 work-related injury deaths, or approximately 16 per day, occurred in the U.S. that year.

• A total of 2,591 work-related respiratory illnesses with days away from work (2.5 per 100,000 workers) occurred in private workplaces in 2004. The highest total for days away from work due to respiratory illnesses occurred in the manufacturing sector.

• In 2005, African Americans made up 29.3 percent of the 70,000 textile workers in the United States. Exposure to dusts generated while processing cotton can cause byssinosis, a chronic condition that results in blocked airways and impaired lung function. Between 1990 and 1999, African American males had an age-adjusted mortality rate due to byssinosis that was 80 percent greater than White males.

• It is estimated that African Americans accounted for 18.3 percent of the 2.1 million building cleaning jobs, which involve exposure to noxious chemicals and biological contaminants.

• African American males were twice as likely to die of silicosis as White males between 1990 and 1999.

• Hispanics are more likely to be employed in high-risk occupations than any other racial or ethnic group.

• Asian Americans account for a very low percentage of workers in high-risk industries.

• In Colorado and New Mexico, a high number of Native Americans are employed in uranium mines, work that has been associated with their high rate of lung cancer due to exposure to radon byproducts. Navajo uranium miners run a risk of developing lung cancer that is 28 times as great as those Navajos not exposed to uranium.

For more information on occupational lung disease,  click here.

For information on racial/ethnic differences,  click here.

Changing the Face of Occupation Lung Disease Research: Kitaw Demissie, M.D., Ph.D.

• Complementary Fact Sheets which contain data from the 2007 report 
• To view the full PDF of State of Lung Disease in Diverse Communities, click here.