Asthma
Work and Pensions
Julie Hilling (Bolton West, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the change in the level of occupational asthma since 2003.
Chris Grayling (Minister of State (Employment), Work and Pensions; Epsom and Ewell, Conservative)
Based on an assessment of the latest evidence available from The Health and Occupation Reporting (THOR) network, the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) best estimate is that the incidence of occupational asthma (i.e. new cases occurring each year) had approximately halved in 2010 compared with 2003.
There is some uncertainty about this estimate because the underlying statistics relate only to those cases referred to respiratory specialists or among workers with access to occupational physicians. The numbers may be influenced by a range of factors, such as the number of participating physicians within the scheme and their reporting habits, and some of these have been taken into account in making the estimate.
Further information is available at: