Rapidly Progressive Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis in the United States: Geographic Clustering and Other Factors

Details

• Personal Author:
  Antão VC ; Attfield MD ; Hale, Janet M. ; Petsonk, Edward L. ; Pinheiro GA ; Sokolow LZ ; Wolfe, Anita L.
• Description:
  Despite significant progress made in reducing dust exposures in underground coal miners in the United States, severe cases of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), including progressive massive fibrosis (PMF), continue to occur among coal miners. AIMS: To identify US miners with rapidly progressive CWP and to describe their geographic distribution and associated risk factors. Radiographic evidence of disease progression was evaluated for underground coal miners examined through US federal chest radiograph surveillance programmes from 1996 to 2002. A case of rapidly progressive CWP was defined as the development of PMF and/or an increase in small opacity profusion greater than one subcategory over five years. County based prevalences were derived for both CWP and rapidly progressive cases. A total of 886 cases of CWP were identified among 29 521 miners examined from 1996 to 2002. Among the subset of 783 miners with CWP for whom progression could be evaluated, 277 (35.4%) were cases of rapidly progressive CWP, including 41 with PMF. Miners with rapidly progressive CWP were younger than miners without rapid progression, were more likely to have worked in smaller mines (<50 employees), and also reported longer mean tenure in jobs involving work at the face of the mine (in contrast to other underground mining jobs), but did not differ with respect to mean underground tenure. There was a clear tendency for the proportion of cases of rapidly progressive CWP to be higher in eastern Kentucky, and western Virginia. Cases of rapidly progressive CWP can be regarded as sentinel health events, indicating inadequate prevention measures in specific regions. Such events should prompt investigations to identify causal factors and initiate appropriate additional measures to prevent further disease. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Dust Mining Occupational Health Radiation Radiography Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Coal-miners Coal-mining Coal-workers Disease-prevention Diseases Dust-exposure Dusts Mine-workers Miners Mining-industry Pneumoconiosis Radiographic-analysis Risk-analysis Risk-factors Surveillance-programs Underground-miners Underground-mining

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• ISSN:
  1351-0711
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  62
• Issue:
  10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028432
• Citation:
  Occup Environ Med 2005 Oct; 62(10):670-674
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr V Antao, Division of Respiratory Disease Studies, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1095 Willowdale Road, MS 2800, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
• Email:
  VAntao@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:57971ce75f6267b80383aed825d92a53e2602c5b25c05cebccb1169c81eec5f98e6e0365f234e8ce11523c79e1dd84f8b5a8e704ffaeed76c8522c4fbc843a1b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/189849/cdc_189849_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 159.48 KB ]