Occupational inhalant exposures and longitudinal lung function decline.

Lung function peaks in the twenties, and naturally declines with increasing age hereafter [1]. Tobacco smoking is the most important risk factor for accelerated lung function decline, which may lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [2]. In addition to smoking, occupational airborne exposures have been associated with lung function decline and COPD [3, 4]. The population attributable fraction of COPD due to occupational exposure has been estimated to be 15–20% [5]. Prior studies have mostly focused on high risk occupations such as coal mining [6, 7], welding [8, 9] and wood processing [10, 11]. Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article. Conflict of interest: Dr. Skaaby has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Flachs has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Lange has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Schlunssen has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Mr. Marott has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Brauer has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Colak reports personal fees from Boehringer-Ingelheim, AstraZeneca, and Sanofi Genzyme outside the submitted work. Conflict of interest: Dr. Afzal has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Nordestgaard has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Sadhra has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Kurmi has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: