IS THERE A SPECIFIC DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OCCUPATIONAL ASTHMA AND OCCUPATIONAL BRONCHITIS?
Unfortunately, many physicians and non-physicians alike get “hung up” on terminology. A patient may go to several doctors for a breathing problem, and one doctor will call it “asthma,” another “bronchitis,” and a third “asthmatic bronchitis.” Labels attached to the worker sometimes cloud the central issue in any claim: does the patient have airway disease caused by his occupation? Viewed in this manner it is not so important what label is applied. However, for medical and scientific purposes there are differences between asthma and bronchitis, as discussed in the preceding two chapters. “Asthma” denotes a hyper-sensitive airway reaction to something inhaled, with periods of normal air flow in between. “Bronchitis” denotes a more or less daily coughing up of phlegm, without the hypersensitivity response. Both conditions may or may not arise from the workplace. When patients have continuous coughing of phlegm and hyper-sensitive airway responses, I call that “asthmatic bronchitis.” Howev
