SWORD is an acronym which stands for Surveillance of Work Related & Occupational Respiratory Diseases. It is a reporting system set up by the British Thoracic Society in order to report on respiratory diseases that are work related. SWORD was established in 1991. British chest physicians now complete details of new patients who have occupational lung disease. These must be regularly reported to a project coordinator. The identify of those being reported on is confidential under the scheme.
SWORD statistics reveal that there is an average of 60 cases of asthma for spray painters for every 100,000 workers in that industry. For chemical and plastic process workers, the figure is 40 people for every 100,000. Bakers are also affected by asthma at the rate of 40 people per 100,000. Thus, the SWORD monitoring system provides a useful method of monitoring the levels of chest problems associated with various industries.