[Occupational lung diseases other than asbestos- and indium-related disease].

In our country, pneumoconiosis used to hold an overwhelmingly majority in respiratory occupational lung diseases. Although the number of pneumoconiosis cases has been decreasing certainly, new cases have been arising even today. In addition, in place of pneumoconiosis or asbestos-related diseases, occupational asthma has become the most common forms of occupational lung disease in many industrialized countries. Occupational asthma has been implicated in 9 to 15% of adult asthma in the United States. Although the environmental causes of occupational lung disease are clear, the mechanisms of the diseases are not fully understood and need to be further elucidated.