Colinet-Caplan Syndrome: History of an Outbreak of Autoimmune Disease in Scouring Powder Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Blanc, Paul D. ; Ronsmans, Steven
• Description:
  The first modern description linking rheumatoid arthritis to occupational dust exposure is generally attributed to the British physician Anthony Caplan. In 1953, Caplan reported on a "peculiar" nodular pattern on chest radiographs of Welsh coal miners with rheumatoid arthritis that differed from the typical coal workers' pneumoconiosis. However, as early as 1950, the Belgian rheumatologist Émile Colinet described a similar case of rheumatoid arthritis and concomitant pulmonary opacities in a 30-year-old woman with silica exposure. Soon after, he published a second case. Although this condition initially was called Colinet-Caplan syndrome in the Francophone biomedical literature, Colinet's name was later dropped from the eponym. Because Colinet never clearly described the specific occupational context of his cases, Caplan syndrome has been misconstrued as uniquely a disease of coal miners. We attempted to reconstruct the working conditions of Colinet's patients and found that they were packing Vim, a silica-based scouring powder, at the Savonneries Lever Frères factory in Brussels, Belgium. Colinet's cases were only the first 2 in a series of reports of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases, mainly among young women, in those who worked in the production of silica-based scouring powder between the 1930s and 1980s across Europe. The largest outbreak involved 32 cases of autoimmune disease among 50 former workers of a Spanish scouring powder manufacturing facility. After silica in scouring powders was replaced with less hazardous materials later in the 20th century, no further cases have been reported. Although scouring powder disease is a historical phenomenon, autoimmune disorders linked to occupational exposure to silica and coal dust have not disappeared but instead are reemerging among those who work with silica-based artificial stone and in other dusty trades.. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Dust Mining Occupational Health Radiation Radiography Safety Silicon Dioxide
• Keywords:
  Autoimmune Diseases Coal Workers Dust Exposure Radiographic Analysis Rheumatoid Disorders Silica Underground Mining
• ISSN:
  0003-4819
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  9 pdf pages
• Volume:
  176
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20067008
• Citation:
  Ann Intern Med 2023 Feb; 176(2):260-265
• Contact Point Address:
  Steven Ronsmans, MD, PhD, Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49-Box 706, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
• Email:
  steven.ronsmans@kuleuven.be
• CAS Registry Number:
  Silica (CAS RN 7631-86-9)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2023
• Performing Organization:
  University of California, Berkeley
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Annals of Internal Medicine
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:efff534d2b39fab02b1f86bff81a5e1a5b555bdd3489e1e089711ca1a448bf0d53798a2640c5885b09cfb0b1b0984451f4135d291082533ee86b3d695d5bb5d7
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/230774/cdc_230774_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 311.96 KB ]