Most Dangerous Jobs for Your Lungs

No one doubts that having a nice outdoor job like a forest ranger or trail guide is healthier than working inside in a big city. One of the parts of the body that suffers the most from a dirty occupation are the lungs. You can wash the dirt and hazardous chemicals and other materials off of your skin, but you can't get them out of your lungs.

Some of the jobs that are dangerous to your lung health are obvious like coal mining and working around asbestos. Just watch daytime TV and you'll see an ad from an attorney talking about lung cancer and your place of work and how you can make them pay if you have it.

According to CNN:

"Nearly 23,000 workers developed job-related lung disease in 2008, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates. More than 16,000 people die from it each year."

Here are some of the most dangerous jobs as far as lung health is concerned. Some may surprise you.:

Construction. The big culprit in construction is inhaling dust. This is especially true when demolishing or renovating old buildings that may contain asbestos. The diseases caused by this may take 20 years or more to develop, so make sure you wear a respirator.

Manufacturing. The biggest hazard to workers in manufacturing, believe it or not, is the flavoring agent that is used in microwave popcorn. Other hazards include inhaling chemicals and gases. A friend of mine worked for Monsanto for many years and when there was a chemical spill he inhaled some of it and it severely burned his throat. He still has trouble speaking to this day.

Health care workers. This may surprise you, but the biggest hazard to health care workers are the things that they wear to protect you: latex gloves. Latex gloves and even non-latex gloves can cause a severe allergic reaction in some people.

Textile workers. Tearing apart cotton releases a lot of dust into the air and that can cause lung disease over a period of time. Smoking cigarettes increases the risk.

Bartending. This is another surprising one. Since most municipalities have banned smoking in public places, this may have helped. But there are many bartenders out there that have worked many years in smoke-filled bars inhaling second hand cigarette smoke.

Transportation. The biggest problem here is for workers who unload merchandise from diesel trucks. Inhaling diesel fumes all day can cause a number of health problems.

Another surprising one is bakers. Inhaling all of that flour dust can cause serious lung problems. I used to work in a fried chicken restaurant and had to inhale flour dust as well as a silica filtering agent for the fryers that was made out of crushed sea shells. It really irritated your throat and lungs if you inhaled it.

And finally, firefighters who run into burning buildings not only risk getting burned, but also inhaling a lot of dangerous smoke as well. The stakes really get high when they fight a chemical fire at a factory.

Source: http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20443619_11,00.html