News-Sentinel.com

Thursday, 05/04/2000

ASTHMA: THE BATTLE TO BREATHE

Asthma takes toll on workplace

And on-the-job exposure to triggers can lead to attacks.

By Duane Schuman of The News-Sentinel

It usually takes Sharron Wilkins 20 minutes to drive from her job at Ward Elementary School on Warsaw Street to her son David's Franke Park Elementary School on Mildred Avenue.

When she's called with the news her son is having an asthma attack, it takes her 10.

"All the time I'm racing through traffic I'm wondering, `What was it that triggered it this time?' " Wilkins said.

Thankfully, her employer is not wondering whether he should replace her.

"My boss is very understanding," she said, after being forced to leave work three times this year. "He's one of those people who believe family is first."

Asthma can intrude on the workplace in a variety of ways — through on-the-job exposure to asthmatic triggers, through increased absenteeism of asthmatics and in lost time from work by parents with asthmatic children.

According to a study published in March 1992 in the New England Journal of Medicine, the total cost of lost work due to asthma was $1.16 billion.

Up to 15 percent of all asthma cases have job-related factors, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

"It's generally an under-recognized problem, unfortunately," said Dr. Mark Jacobson, a Hinsdale, Ill., asthma specialist and a spokesman for the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

For a severe asthmatic, the workplace trigger of an asthma attack can be something seemingly innocuous.

"It affects me when people wear almost any kind of perfume and cologne," said Mary Van Herle, a nurse at Lutheran Hospital. "Sometimes the smell of cleaning supplies is enough to do it."

When co-workers walk past Van Herle after taking a cigarette break, the smell of smoke on their clothing is enough to steal her breath and cause an attack.

Van Herle's asthma kept her home from work about three days of every month before 1996. From 1996 to 1999, the 52-year-old nurse couldn't work.

She spent nearly 300 days in the hospital during that span.

Recently Van Herle made a decision to cut back from her four-days-a-week schedule to just three days a month.

"I just couldn't subject myself to those kinds of smells on a daily basis," she said.

Good rapport with patients and hospital staff members kept asthma from threatening her job status. Still, when she is at work, tasks can be difficult.

"Sometimes I know I'm not going to be able to be in a room with a patient without running out of the room to use my inhaler," she said. "I ask someone else to step in for a couple minutes."

During many years she has used all her available vacation time for hospital visits and doctors' care.

Sometimes workplace allergens aren't that obvious.

"It can be as subtle as cat dander brought there by other employees," said Jacobson. "The asthmatic knows they're allergic to cats, but they don't know that four other employees near their cubicle all have cats and may have (dander) all over their clothing."

"People spend about one-third of their time in their office, so it's important to control the things they can," Jacobson said.

Four to six times a year, a Fort Wayne General Motors plant worker suffers an acute asthma attack. Exposure to hydrocarbons from engine exhaust can lead to a department transfer for workers with sensitive lungs.

"What we do is prevent that person from working in that area of the plant," said Dr. Carlos Espinosa, medical director for Fort Wayne Assembly.

In the paint department, GM uses an air circulation system and tests lung function of paint department workers annually, said Espinosa.

All those precautions don't affect breathing problems caused by a familiar culprit.

"I must admit, we have more lung damage from cigarettes than the plant air," said Espinosa.

Tips for asthmatic workers

* Keep office windows shut to control pollen

* Use an air cleaner in the office

* Maintain the humidity level at between 30 percent and 45 percent to decrease the chance of mold