Coal workers' pneumoconiosis in the United States: regional differences 40 years after implementation of the 1969 Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act

Details

• Personal Author:
  Attfield MD ; Hale, Janet M. ; Laney AS ; Storey, Eileen ; Suarthana, Eva
• Description:
  Objective: To assess whether the recent increases in the prevalence of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) in the USA reflect increased measured exposures over recent decades, and to identify other potential causative factors. Methods: The observed CWP prevalence was calculated for 12 408 underground coal miner participants in the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program for the period 2005-2009, stratified by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) geographical districts. The predicted prevalence was estimated using a published exposure-response model from a large epidemiological study among US coal miners using dust exposure, tenure, miner's age and coal rank as predictors. X(2) Testing was performed to compare the observed versus predicted CWP prevalence. Results: Observed prevalence was significantly higher than predicted prevalence in MSHA districts 4-7 (central Appalachian region) (10.1% vs 4.2%; prevalence ratio (PR) 2.4; p<0.001) and significantly lower than predicted in other regions (1.6% vs 3.6%; PR 0.4; p<0.001). The central Appalachian region had a significantly older workforce with greater mining tenure, a lower proportion of mines with 200 or more employees, and lower seam heights. Significant lower average compliance dust concentrations were reported for this region. Conclusion: The observed CWP prevalence substantially exceeded predicted levels in central Appalachia. However, the increased prevalence was not explained by the measured levels of dust exposures. Likely contributing factors include mine size and low seam mining, which may be associated with higher exposure to silica. Further study is needed to characterise the responsible factors for the elevated CWP rates in central Appalachia. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Dust Environmental Monitoring Epidemiology Hazardous Substances Irritants Lung Lung Diseases Mining Occupational Health Particulate Matter Respiratory Hypersensitivity Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Biohazards Biological-effects Biological-monitoring Coal-dust Coal-miners Coal-mining Coal-workers Exposure-assessment Health-hazards Injury-prevention Lung-disease Lung-disorders Lung-irritants Mine-workers Mining-industry Particle-aerodynamics Particulate-dust Physical-reactions Physiological-effects Physiological-factors Pulmonary-system Pulmonary-system-disorders Quantitative-analysis Respiratory-hypersensitivity Respiratory-irritants Respiratory-system-disorders Risk-analysis Risk-factors Statistical-analysis Surveillance-programs Underground-mining Work-analysis Work-areas Work-environment Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices Worker-health Workplace-studies

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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:
  68
• Issue:
  12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20038885
• Citation:
  Occup Environ Med 2011 Dec; 68(12):908-913
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr Eva Suarthana, Division of Respiratory Disease Studies, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1095 Willowdale Road, Room 2806, Morgantown, West Virginia 26505, USA
• Email:
  esuarthana@cdc.gov
• CAS Registry Number:
  Quartz (SiO2) (CAS RN 14808-60-7)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• 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:ccada6fb43bae1b99b23be6ea83199e0e6e9869bb25697c63d86df5166157730eac30eea9d81448ea824af40bf6fbc03f48ee7f3ab225556b600a3d7513be171
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/192426/cdc_192426_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 134.56 KB ]