Mortality Among U.S. Underground Coal Miners: A 23-Year Follow-Up

Details

• Personal Author:
  Attfield MD ; Kuempel, Eileen D.
• Description:
  Background: the mortality experience over 22-24 years of 8,899 working coal miners initially medically examined in 1969-1971 at 31 U.S. coal mines was evaluated. Methods: a cohort life-table analysis was undertaken on underlying causes of death, and proportional hazards models were fitted to both underlying, and underlying and contributing causes of death. Results: elevated mortality from nonviolent causes, nonmalignant respiratory disease (NMRD), and accidents was observed, but lung cancer and stomach cancer mortality were not elevated. Smoking, pneumoconiosis, coal rank region, and cumulative coal mine dust exposure were all predictors of mortality from nonviolent causes and NMRD. Mortality from nonviolent causes and NMRD was related to dust exposure within the complete cohort and also for the never smoker subgroup. Dust exposure relative risks for mortality were similar for pneumoconiosis, NMRD, and chronic airways obstruction. Conclusions: the findings confirm and enlarge upon previous results showing that exposure to coal mine dust leads to increased mortality, even in the absence of smoking. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Coal Coal Mining Dust Lung Lung Diseases Mining Morbidity Mortality Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Particulate Matter Pneumoconiosis Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety

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• Keywords:
  Airborne-particles Author Keywords: Coal Breathing Coal-dust Coal-miners Coal-mining Coal-workers Coal-workers-pneumoconiosis Dust Dust-exposure Exposure-response Morbidity-rates Mortality Mortality-data Mortality-rates Occupational-exposure Pneumoconiosis Quantitative-analysis Respiratory-system-disorders Surveillance

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• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies ; EID - Education and Information Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  231-245
• Volume:
  51
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20033539
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 2008 Apr; 51(4):231-245
• Contact Point Address:
  M.D. Attfield, Division of Respiratory Disease Studies, NIOSH, 1095 Willowdale Road, Morgantown, WV, 26505
• Email:
  mdal@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2008
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6aa6a23c43b6870e7631d03c37938e004ccd3fa4bb0726f1f13c45d57da01b75d96e69d4ee8e2b823a15c3dac298ead9d08c4700b756059bb5b08e4238f3f52c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/189075/cdc_189075_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 185.21 KB ]