Epidemiology

Inhalation injury may occur during workplace accidents and residential fires, with the latter being far more common. In the UK in 2020, there were four cases of inhalation accidents in the work place, as measured by the Surveillance of Work-Related and Occupational Respiratory Disease (SWORD) group.[4] In the US in 2019, there were 59 fatal and 3360 non-fatal injuries in private industry, the majority from chemical exposure.[5][6]

Public servants such as firefighters and police officers are estimated to have much higher rates of non-fatal inhalation injury, largely due to their role as first responders in fires.[7] Inhalation injuries tend to occur in workplaces where the workforce is predominantly young and male, and the demographics of injury reflect this.

In 2019, people aged 50 to 54 years were at greatest risk for fire injury in the US (66.4 injuries per million population); children aged 5 to 9 years were at lowest risk (18.8 injuries per million population).[8] Of a total of 3515 fire deaths, approximately 62% occurred in males (2164 deaths), compared with 38% in females (1351 deaths).[8] African American males and American Indian males had the highest fire death rates per million population (19.1 and 18.7, respectively).[8]

The majority of fire-related deaths are believed to be due to respiratory system injury, a strong predictor of mortality among burn patients.[9] While the US has had roughly 4000 fire-related deaths annually for several years, this marks a significant improvement from the 12,000 annual fire-related deaths circa 1980.

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