The industrial physician and occupational lung disease.

Prevention and management of chronic occupational illnesses requires that they first be recognized as such. This appears to be particularly difficult in the case of occupational lung disease and doubly so in the case of occupational immunologic lung disease. It took years to recognize asbestosis, byssinosis, and other chronic lung diseases as being occupational in origin. Trimellitic anhydride is particularly interesting in that it took a variety of purely clinical perceptions to arouse the suspicion that an immunologic response was involved. Increased cooperation of industry managements, occupational physicians, and researchers can lead to the elucidation of causes, which, in turn, can led to the goals we all share, the discovery, the treatment, and, even better, the prevention of disease.