Systemic sclerosis and occupational silica or solvent exposure: investigating epidemiology, gene-environment interactions and objective markers of exposure to improve occupational epidemiology, risk assessment and prevention. KU Leuven
Systemic sclerosis is a rare autoimmune disease that can develop in genetically predisposed individuals upon exposure to – at present largely unknown- environmental triggers. The best available evidence supports a link between systemic sclerosis and job exposure to silica or solvents. Due to the rarity of the disease many questions remain open: what is the critical threshold of exposure above which disease will develop? Is intensity of ...