Thorens B
Caisse nationale suisse d'assurance en cas d'accident, Lausanne.
Schweiz Rundsch Med Prax. 1991 Apr 30;80(18):496-501.
Industrial bronchitis is defined as a chronic bronchitis due to prolonged exposure to polluted air at the professional workplace. Up until the nineteen eighties, its proper existence was open to controversy, because outside professional factors, such as tobacco, were considered as predominant causes. However, the most recent epidemiological studies have shown that exposure to dust, in conjunction or not with fumes and gases, was responsible for chronic obstructive syndromes. Bronchitis observed in silicotic patients is an interesting example. On the other hand, in other occupations, such as soldering, in which only gases and fumes are inhaled, the risk of chronic obstructive bronchitis is minimal. Due to the threshold limit values enforced by law since many years in Switzerland, the probability of industrial bronchitis is low; therefore the proportional responsibility of tobacco as cause of pulmonary obstruction is increased and justifies preventive effort also in this field.
职业性支气管炎被定义为因在职业场所长期暴露于污染空气中而导致的慢性支气管炎。直到20世纪80年代，其确切存在仍存在争议，因为除职业因素外，如烟草，被认为是主要病因。然而，最近的流行病学研究表明，接触粉尘，无论是否伴有烟雾和气体，都会导致慢性阻塞性综合征。矽肺患者中观察到的支气管炎就是一个有趣的例子。另一方面，在其他职业中，如焊接，仅吸入气体和烟雾，慢性阻塞性支气管炎的风险极小。由于瑞士多年来依法实施的阈限值，职业性支气管炎的可能性较低；因此，烟草作为肺部阻塞病因的比例责任增加，这也证明了在该领域进行预防工作的合理性。
