Respiratory impairment in working coal miners

Details

• Personal Author:
  Morgan WKC
• Description:
  It is fairly widely accepted that coal miners have a greater prevalence of respiratory disease than does the general population. The extent and cause of the excess of respiratory disease are still the subject of debate, but there seems little doubt that the geographical region in which the miner works has a bearing on the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and impairment. There are several factors that must be considered in the etiology of respiratory disease in coal miners. First, there are those related to his occupation per se, namely, coal mine dust and possibly other noxious agents to which he is exposed while at work. Secondly, there are the factors that are responsible for the development of naturally occurring respiratory diseases, such as, chronic obstructive airway disease, tuberculosis, and lung cancer, all of which also affect the general population and are clearly not work related. Coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) is a consequence of exposure to dust and there is little doubt that in its complicated form, it is associated with respiratory disability and premature death. In contrast, simple CWP is associated with some minor respiratory impairments, which of themselves are not severe enough to be associated with respiratory disability. It is accepted by informed physicians that although the higher grades of simple pneumoconiosis (categories 2 and 3) produce little in the way of respiratory disability, there is an increased risk of miners with these categories developing the complicated form of the disease. Thus, simple pneumoconiosis, although relatively harmless by itself, is sometimes a precursor of serious disease, namely complicated pneumoconiosis. There is some debate as to whether chronic nonspecific obstructive airway disease occurs more frequently in coal miners and, as already mentioned, investigations into the prevalence of airway obstruction and bronchitis in miners have produced contradictory results. Several Appalachian Laboratory for Occupational Respiratory Diseases (ALFORD) studies have a bearing on this problem and are worth description. It is proposed in the remainder of this paper to describe the types of physiological respiratory impairment that are seen in coal miners, and to attempt to decide which of these impairments are related to coal mining and which to naturally occurring disease. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Dust Lung Lung Diseases Mining Occupational Diseases Occupational Health Respiratory Protective Devices Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety

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• Keywords:
  Black-lung Coal-dust Coal-miners Coal-mining Industrial-medicine Lung-disease Lung-disorders Mine-workers Occupational-diseases Pneumoconiosis Respirators Respiratory-diseases Respiratory-system-disorders

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• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OD - Office of the Director
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  18-22
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20047414
• Citation:
  Coal mine health seminar. A joint staff conference of the Bureau of Mines and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, IC 8568, 1972 Jan; :18-22
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1972
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Coal mine health seminar. A joint staff conference of the Bureau of Mines and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:dc2b0e83f2c364da455e672a291b83775df21706f398fbd15357d7c558d748681ad653339fb3c97f11bc6d7b4dacf8d2705894e7e21eaba1cbaf51c622e8aa25
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/202485/cdc_202485_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 254.60 KB ]