There is no cure available for asbestosis. Oxygen therapy at home is often necessary to relieve the shortness of breath and correct underlying low blood oxygen levels. Supportive treatment of symptoms includes respiratory physiotherapy to remove secretions from the lungs by postural drainage, chest percussion, and vibration. Nebulized medications may be prescribed in order to loosen secretions or treat underlying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Immunization against pneumococcal pneumonia and annual influenza vaccination is administered due to increased sensitivity to the diseases. Those with asbestosis are at increased risk for certain cancers. If the person smokes, quitting the habit reduces further damage. Periodic pulmonary function tests, chest x-rays, and clinical evaluations, including cancer screening/evaluations, are given to detect additional hazards.

Silicosis is a permanent disease with no cure. Treatment options currently available focus on alleviating the symptoms and preventing any further progress of the condition. These include:

- Stopping further exposure to airborne silica, silica dust and other lung irritants, including tobacco smoking.

- Cough suppressants.

- Antibiotics for bacterial lung infection.

- TB prophylaxis for those with positive tuberculin skin test or IGRA blood test.

- Prolonged anti-tuberculosis (multi-drug regimen) for those with active TB.

- Chest physiotherapy to help the bronchial drainage of mucus.

- Oxygen administration to treat hypoxemia, if present.

- Bronchodilators to facilitate breathing.

- Lung transplantation to replace the damaged lung tissue is the most effective treatment, but is associated with severe risks of its own.

- For acute silicosis, bronchoalveolar lavage may alleviate symptoms, but does not decrease overall mortality.

Experimental treatments include:

- Inhalation of powdered aluminium, d-penicillamine and polyvinyl pyridine-N-oxide.

- Corticosteroid therapy.

- Chinese Herbal Kombucha

- The herbal extract tetrandrine may slow progression of silicosis.

ILD is not a single disease, but encompasses many different pathological processes. Hence treatment is different for each disease.

If a specific occupational exposure cause is found, the person should avoid that environment. If a drug cause is suspected, that drug should be discontinued.

Many cases due to unknown or connective tissue-based causes are treated with corticosteroids, such as prednisolone. Some people respond to immunosuppressant treatment. Patients with a low level of oxygen in the blood may be given supplemental oxygen.

Pulmonary rehabilitation appears to be useful. Lung transplantation is an option if the ILD progresses despite therapy in appropriately selected patients with no other contraindications.

On October 16, 2014, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug for the treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). This drug, Ofev (nintedanib), is marketed by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. This drug has been shown to slow the decline of lung function although the drug has not been shown to reduce mortality or improve lung function. The estimated cost of the drug per year is approximately $94,000.

Many people with this condition have no symptoms. Treatment is aimed at the health problems causing the lung problem and the complications caused by the disorder.

Fast-acting drugs for RA include aspirin and corticosteroids, which alleviate pain and reduce inflammation. Slow-acting drugs termed disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), include gold, methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), which promote disease remission and prevent progressive joint destruction. In patients with less severe RA, pain relievers, anti-inflammatory drugs and physical rest are sufficient to improve quality of life. In patients with joint deformity, surgery is the only alternative for recovering articular function.

Prognosis is related to the underlying disorder and the type and severity of lung disease. In severe cases, lung transplantation can be considered. This is more common in cases of bronchiolitis obliterans, pulmonary fibrosis, or pulmonary hypertension. Most complications are not fatal, but does reduce life expectancy to an estimated 5 to 10 years.

Once tuberculosis has been excluded, treatment is with steroids. All exposure to coal dust must be stopped, and smoking cessation should be attempted. Rheumatoid arthritis should be treated normally with early use of DMARDs.

The best way to prevent silicosis is to identify work-place activities that produce respirable crystalline silica dust and then to eliminate or control the dust ("primary prevention"). Water spray is often used where dust emanates. Dust can also be controlled through dry air filtering.

Following observations on industry workers in Lucknow (India), experiments on rats found that jaggery (a traditional sugar) had a preventive action against silicosis.

The exact cause of rheumatoid lung disease is unknown. However, associated factors could be due largely to smoking. Sometimes, the medicines used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, especially methotrexate, may result in lung disease.

Prevention's:

- Stop smoking: Chemicals found in cigarettes can irritate already delicate lung tissue, leading to further complications.

- Having regular checkups: The doctor could listen to lungs and monitor breathing, because lung problems that are detected early can be easier to treat.

Treatment consists of humidified oxygen, bronchodilators, suction, endotracheal tube and chest physiotherapy. There is no role for routine treatment of smoke inhalation with either antibiotics or steroids. Treatment depends on the severity of the smoke inhalation.

Inhalation therapy with nebulized heparin and acetylcysteine is usually started and continued for five to seven days during the hospital stay.

Asbestosis is long term inflammation and scarring of the lungs due to asbestos. Symptoms may include shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, and chest pain. Complications may include lung cancer, mesothelioma, and pulmonary heart disease.

Asbestosis is caused by breathing in asbestos fibers. Generally it required a relatively large exposure over a long period of time. Such levels of exposure typically only occur in those who work with the material. All types of asbestos fibers are associated with concerns. It is generally recommended that currently existing asbestos be left undisturbed. Diagnosis is based upon a history of exposure together with medical imaging. It is a type of interstitial pulmonary fibrosis.

There is no specific treatment. Recommendations may include stopping smoking, influenza vaccination, pneumococcal vaccination, or oxygen therapy. Asbestosis affected about 157,000 people and resulted in 3,600 deaths in 2015. Asbestos use has been banned in a number of countries in an effort to prevent disease.

Asbestosis is a fibrosing interstitial lung disease caused by exposure to forms of the mineral asbestos.

Pneumoconiosis is an occupational lung disease and a restrictive lung disease caused by the inhalation of dust, often in mines and from agriculture.

In 2013, it resulted in 260,000 deaths, up from 251,000 deaths in 1990. Of these deaths, 46,000 were due to silicosis, 24,000 due to asbestosis and 25,000 due to coal workers pneumoconiosis.

Occupational lung diseases are occupational diseases affecting the respiratory system, including occupational asthma, black lung disease (coalworker's pneumoconiosis), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), mesothelioma, and silicosis. Infectious lung diseases can also be acquired in an occupational context. Exposure to substances like flock and silica can cause fibrosing lung disease, whereas exposure to carcinogens like asbestos and beryllium can cause lung cancer. Occupational cases of interstitial lung disease may be misdiagnosed as COPD, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or a myriad of other diseases; leading to a delay in identification of the causative agent.

The nodules may pre-date the appearance of rheumatoid arthritis by several years. Otherwise prognosis is as for RA; lung disease may remit spontaneously, but pulmonary fibrosis may also progress.

Treatment of the underlying cause is required. Endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation are required in cases of severe respiratory failure (PaO2 less than 50 mmHg). Respiratory stimulants such as doxapram are rarely used, and if the respiratory failure resulted from an overdose of sedative drugs such as opioids or benzodiazepines, then the appropriate antidote (naloxone or flumazenil, respectively) will be given.

There is tentative evidence that in those with respiratory failure identified before arrival in hospital, continuous positive airway pressure can be useful when started before conveying to hospital.

Interstitial lung disease (ILD), or diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD), is a group of lung diseases affecting the interstitium (the tissue and space around the air sacs of the lungs). It concerns alveolar epithelium, pulmonary capillary endothelium, basement membrane, perivascular and perilymphatic tissues. It may occur when an injury to the lungs triggers an abnormal healing response. Ordinarily, the body generates just the right amount of tissue to repair damage. But in interstitial lung disease, the repair process goes awry and the tissue around the air sacs (alveoli) becomes scarred and thickened. This makes it more difficult for oxygen to pass into the bloodstream. The term ILD is used to distinguish these diseases from obstructive airways diseases.

In children, several unique forms of ILD exist which are specific for the young age groups. The acronym chILD is used for this group of diseases and is derived from the English name, Children’s Interstitial Lung Diseases – chILD.

Prolonged ILD may result in pulmonary fibrosis, but this is not always the case. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is interstitial lung disease for which no obvious cause can be identified (idiopathic), and is associated with typical findings both radiographic (basal and pleural based fibrosis with honeycombing) and pathologic (temporally and spatially heterogeneous fibrosis, histopathologic honeycombing and fibroblastic foci).

In 2013 interstitial lung disease affected 595,000 people globally. This resulted in 471,000 deaths.

Progressive Massive Fibrosis (PMF), characterized by the development of large conglomerate masses of dense fibrosis (usually in the upper lung zones), can complicate silicosis and coal worker's pneumoconiosis. Conglomerate masses may also occur in other pneumoconioses, such as talcosis, berylliosis (CBD), kaolin pneumoconiosis, and pneumoconiosis from carbon compounds, such as carbon black, graphite, and oil shale. Conglomerate masses can also develop in sarcoidosis, but usually near the hilae and with surrounding paracitricial emphysema.

The disease arises firstly through the deposition of silica or coal dust (or other dust) within the lung, and then through the body's immunological reactions to the dust.

Positive indications on patient assessment:

- Shortness of breath

- Chest X-ray may show a characteristic patchy, subpleural, bibasilar interstitial infiltrates or small cystic radiolucencies called honeycombing.

Pneumoconiosis in combination with multiple pulmonary rheumatoid nodules in rheumatoid arthritis patients is known as Caplan's syndrome.

Coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), also known as black lung disease or black lung, is caused by long exposure to coal dust. It is common in coal miners and others who work with coal. It is similar to both silicosis from inhaling silica dust and to the long-term effects of tobacco smoking. Inhaled coal dust progressively builds up in the lungs and cannot be removed by the body; this leads to inflammation, fibrosis, and in worse cases, necrosis.

Coal workers' pneumoconiosis, severe state, develops after the initial, milder form of the disease known as anthracosis ("anthrac" — coal, carbon). This is often asymptomatic and is found to at least some extent in all urban dwellers due to air pollution. Prolonged exposure to large amounts of coal dust can result in more serious forms of the disease, "simple coal workers' pneumoconiosis" and "complicated coal workers' pneumoconiosis" (or progressive massive fibrosis, or PMF). More commonly, workers exposed to coal dust develop industrial bronchitis, clinically defined as chronic bronchitis (i.e. productive cough for 3 months per year for at least 2 years) associated with workplace dust exposure. The incidence of industrial bronchitis varies with age, job, exposure, and smoking. In nonsmokers (who are less prone to develop bronchitis than smokers), studies of coal miners have shown a 16% to 17% incidence of industrial bronchitis.

In 2013 CWP resulted in 25,000 deaths down from 29,000 deaths in 1990.

The pathogenesis of PMF is complicated, but involves two main routes - an immunological route, and a mechanical route.

Immunologically, disease is caused primarily through the activity of lung macrophages, which phagocytose dust particles after their deposition. These macrophages seek to eliminate the dust particle through either the mucociliary mechanism, or through lymphatic vessels which drain the lungs. Macrophages also produce an inflammatory mediator known as interleukin-1 (IL-1), which is part of the immune systems first line defenses against infecting particles. IL-1 is responsible for 'activation' of local vasculature, causing endothelial cells to express certain cell adhesion molecules, which help the cells of the bodies immune system to migrate into tissues. Macrophages exposed to dust have been shown to have markedly decreased chemotaxis. Production of inflammatory mediators - and the tissue damage that ensues as an effect of this, as well as reduced motility of cells, is fundamental to the pathogenesis of pneumoconiosis and the accompanying inflammation, fibrosis, and emphysema.

There are also some mechanical factors involved in the pathogenesis of Complex Pneumoconiosis that should be considered. The most notable indications are the fact that the disease tends to develop in the upper lobe of the lung - especially on the right, and its common occurrence in taller individuals.

Initially, the disease appears as alveolitis, and then progresses to emphysema.

Patients may develop pneumothorax (collapsed lung).

Oxygen is given with a small amount of continuous positive airway pressure ("CPAP"), and intravenous fluids are administered to stabilize the blood sugar, blood salts, and blood pressure. If the baby's condition worsens, an endotracheal tube (breathing tube) is inserted into the trachea and intermittent breaths are given by a mechanical device. An exogenous preparation of surfactant, either synthetic or extracted from animal lungs, is given through the breathing tube into the lungs. Some of the most commonly used surfactants are Survanta or its generic form Beraksurf, derived from cow lungs, which can decrease the risk of death in hospitalized very-low-birth-weight infants by 30%. Such small premature infants may remain ventilated for months. A study shows that an aerosol of a perfluorocarbon such as perfluoromethyldecalin can reduce inflammation in swine model of IRDS. Chronic lung disease including bronchopulmonary dysplasia are common in severe RDS. The etiology of BPD is problematic and may be due to oxygen, overventilation or underventilation. The mortality rate for babies greater than 27 weeks gestation is less than 20%

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a potential treatment, providing oxygenation through an apparatus that imitates the gas exchange process of the lungs. However, newborns cannot be placed on ECMO if they are under 4.5 pounds (2 kg), because they have extremely small vessels for cannulation, thus hindering adequate flow because of limitations from cannula size and subsequent higher resistance to blood flow (compare with vascular resistance). Furthermore, in infants aged less than 34 weeks of gestation several physiologic systems are not well-developed, specially the cerebral vasculature and germinal matrix, resulting in high sensitivity to slight changes in pH, PaO, and intracranial pressure. Subsequently, preterm infants are at unacceptably high risk for intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) if administered ECMO at a gestational age less than 32 weeks.

- The INSURE Method

Henrik Verder is the inventor and pioneer of the INSURE method, a very effective approach to managing preterm neonates with respiratory distress. The method itself has been shown, through meta-analysis; to successfully decrease the use of mechanical ventilation and lower the incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Since its conception in 1989 the INSURE method has been academically cited in more than 500 papers. The first randomised study about the INSURE method was published in 1994 and a second randomised study in infants less than 30 weeks gestation was published by the group in 1999. In the last 15 years Henrik has worked with lung maturity diagnostics on gastric aspirates obtained at birth. By combining this diagnostic method with INSURE, Henrik has worked to further improve the clinical outcome of RDS. The lung maturity tests used have been the microbubble test, lamellar body counts (LBC) and measurements of lecithin-sphingomyelin ratio (L/S) with chemometrics, which involved a collaboration with Agnar Höskuldsson.

Bauxite pneumoconiosis, also known as Shaver's disease, corundum smelter's lung, bauxite lung or bauxite smelters' disease, is a progressive form of pneumoconiosis usually caused by occupational exposure to bauxite fumes which contain aluminium and silica particulates.

It is typically seen in workers involved in the smelting of bauxite to produce corundum.

Mineral dust airway disease is due to inhaled mineral dust causing fibrosis and narrowing of primarily the respiratory bronchioles. It is distinct from pneumoconiosis which is due to lung tissue fibrosis but shares the same cause.

In people with stable OHS, the most important treatment is weight loss—by diet, through exercise, with medication, or sometimes weight loss surgery (bariatric surgery). This has been shown to improve the symptoms of OHS and resolution of the high carbon dioxide levels. Weight loss may take a long time and is not always successful. Bariatric surgery is avoided if possible, given the high rate of complications, but may be considered if other treatment modalities are ineffective in improving oxygen levels and symptoms. If the symptoms are significant, nighttime positive airway pressure (PAP) treatment is tried; this involves the use of a machine to assist with breathing. PAP exists in various forms, and the ideal strategy is uncertain. Some medications have been tried to stimulate breathing or correct underlying abnormalities; their benefit is again uncertain.

While many people with obesity hypoventilation syndrome are cared for on an outpatient basis, some deteriorate suddenly and when admitted to the hospital may show severe abnormalities such as markedly deranged blood acidity (pH<7.25) or depressed level of consciousness due to very high carbon dioxide levels. On occasions, admission to an intensive care unit with intubation and mechanical ventilation is necessary. Otherwise, "bi-level" positive airway pressure (see the next section) is commonly used to stabilize the patient, followed by conventional treatment.