By far the main cause of COPD is smoking but research suggests occupational exposures are likely to play a role.
There are two ways you can look at what causes COPD in the workplace, including;
- Occupations - where COPD is most common
- Substances - that can cause COPD
Occupations
HSE has looked at research and the following occupations are linked with a possible increased chance of getting COPD:
- Agriculture[1]
- Brick making
- Cadmium (PDF) [2]
- Mining[3]
- Construction[4]
- Dock workers[5]
- Flour and grain workers in the food industry[6]
- Foundry workers[7]
- Petroleum workers[8]
- Quarries[9]
- Rubber[10]
- Plastics[11]
- Stonemasonry[12]
- Textiles[13]
- Welders[14]
If you work in these industries and are also a smoker, any risk of getting COPD is likely to be increased even more.
Substances
A wide variety of dust or fume have the potential to cause COPD if exposure is high and over a long period of time, for example studies suggest the following substances have the potential to cause COPD;
- Cadmium dust (PDF) [15]
- Cadmium fumes
- Grain and flour dust[16]
- Mineral dust[17]
- Organic dusts[18]
- Silica dust[19]
- Welding fumes[20]
Some of these occupations and substances are also linked to other diseases, for example, welding fume can cause fume fever and pneumonia. Some can also cause occupational asthma[21].
The Top tips[22] page gives advice on how to protect yourself in the workplace.