Occupational lung disease: the need for a global surveillance system.

Dear Editor, We read with great interest the editorial by Reynolds and Blanc1 on “forging effective surveillance for work-related lung disease”. On its 30th anniversary, the authors cleverly looked at initial objectives of Surveillance of Work-related and Occupational Respiratory Disease (SWORD) programme and how these objectives have been met over the last three decades. There is one point that we would like to add to what Reynolds and Blanc1 wrote about SWORD. This is the potential to globalise the successful SWORD surveillance system for capturing international data with a view to improving the health and well-being of all workers globally. A good indication is the recent epidemic of artificial stone silicosis, an emerging occupational lung disease which such a global surveillance system may have …