Air Pollution and Lung Disease in Adults

This work provides a general approach to problems involving air pollutants and respiratory disorders in adults, covering sick building syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivities, chronic fatigue syndrome, the clinical evaluation of individual patients and the pathology of environmental lung disease.

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Air Pollution and Lung Disease in Adults provides a general approach to problems involving air pollutants and respiratory disorders in adults. The diversity among the authors, whose areas of expertise and interest include pulmonary medicine, toxicology, allergy immunology, pathology, environmental engineering, and industrial hygiene, parallels the diversity of the readers. Although selected chapters address specific conditions, the overall general approach creates a wide context in which to assess and explore several areas of interest.
The book begins with a chapter on exposure and environmental characterization, followed by discussions on direct and indirect injury to the respiratory tract, carcinogenesis, and lung cancer. The book then covers the pathology of environmental lung disease, causality assessment, and causal inference and toxicology. Clinical evaluation of the individual patient, diagnosis and differential diagnosis, as well as spirometry and cardiopulmonary exercise testing in impairment evaluation follow. The three chapters addressing the more particular entities of immunologic mechanisms include pneumoconioses, chronic and interstitial pulmonary fibrosis and bronchiolitis, sick building syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivities, and chronic fatigue syndrome.