Advances in environmental and occupational disorders

As with the previous year, 2005 was a very active year for investigation of the effect of environmental agents on allergic disease, be they allergens, pollutants, bioaerosols, or occupationally encountered agents. There were a large number of articles on the prevalence of allergic disease in the United States, identification and characterization of a number of allergens, and the role of indoor allergens and potential mitigation of the effect of such allergens, as well as the hygiene hypothesis, air pollution, and the effect of these agents on airway disease. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology also saw very interesting case reports and mechanistic studies examining the causes of occupational immune-mediated disease. There were also reports on gene-environment interactions, highlighting the importance of such interactions in modulating the risk for development of allergic disease. That these interactions have proved to be remarkably complex comes as no surprise to the allergy and immunology community because allergists and immunologists have long appreciated the role of environmental influences on disease.