Technical Paper 260: Miners' Consumption in the Mines of Butte, Montana: Preliminary Report of an Investigation Made in the Years 1916-1919

Details

• Personal Author:
  Harrington, Daniel J. ; Lanza, A. J.
• Description:
  It has long been recognized that workers in hard-rock metal mines are subject to diseases of the lungs. Extensive investigations in England, in British possessions, and in the United States appear to have revealed these facts: (1) That the so-called miners' consumption or miners' phthisis is produced by the mechanical irritation of the lungs by particles of dust of rock containing free silica; (2) that dust is dangerous in proportion to the amount of free silica or other hard, sharp, insoluble material it contains; and (3) that the particles of dust small enough to enter and remain in the lungs measure less than 10 microns, or 1/2500 of an inch in longest dimension. Miners' consumption may in itself produce disability and death. As a matter of fact, this disease so predisposes a man to various infections of the lungs and bronchial passages that few victims escape such infection. Pneumonia and tuberculosis are especially likely to occur, and the vast majority of miners with a considerable dust damage to the lungs contract tuberculosis and ultimately die of it, particularly if exposure to the dust continues. In such cases, tuberculosis runs a more rapid course than in the ordinary individual. It is also recognized that as the larger mining camps become more crowded, with consequent gradual deterioration of housing conditions, the probability for tuberculosis infection increases, and the infection tends to become more and more prevalent and to occur earlier in cases of miners' consumption. The menace to the life of the miner and the menace to the community in general, from the spread of tuberculosis to the miners' family and associates, becomes more evident from year to year. This is attested by the experience of physicians and investigators in South Africa, Australia, the Joplin district, and also in Butte and elsewhere. Miners' consumption is mechanically produced, is neither contagious nor infectious, develops slowly, and by the production of scar tissue gradually impairs the function of the lungs. The length of time necessary to produce the disease depends on the length of time the miner has worked in rock yielding hard, sharp, insoluble dust, the amount of silica in the dust to which he has been exposed, the steadiness with which he worked (from month to month and year to year) , the intensity of application of the man to his work, the actual nature of the work he has done underground, and to a great extent on the general conditions under which he works. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Dust Lung Mining Occupational Health Particulate Matter Respiratory System Safety Tuberculosis
• Keywords:
  Dust Inhalation Mineral Dusts Mining Industry Particulate Dust Pulmonary Disorders TB Underground Mines
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Subseries:
  Technical Papers
• Publisher:
  U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  Montana ; OSHA Region 8
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  WO - Washington Office
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  10 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20069374
• Citation:
  Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, Technical Paper 260, 1921 Feb; :1-19
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1921
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, Technical Paper 260
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b5a37bb5056be438f3dab24b9f539c7f74696f0ca8627b83987dbeba849b0fc6f79f368e35a4ec67a4258997f6fbc8ab95fa707cf951ddaddc617f279ea717ec
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/206424/cdc_206424_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.06 MB ]