Emphysema in Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis

Abstract

Summary: A correlation survey has been carried out between the pathological, physiological, and radiological findings pertaining to emphysema in 247 deceased coal miners and ex-miners, most of whom had been diagnosed as suffering from coal workers' pneumoconiosis during life. The pathological findings, which included large lung sections and detailed histology in every case, were compared with similar findings in a contrast non-mining population matched for age and sex.The results indicated that emphysema was much more common among the coal miners, both with simple and with complicated pneumoconiosis, than among the contrast group. In addition the extent of the emphysema as measured by a recognized "counting" method carried out on paper-mounted lung sections was remarkably closely related to ventilatory impairment as evidenced by the forced expiratory volume in one second.Extensive emphysema was more commonly found in those pneumoconiosis cases, both simple and complicated, showing the finer punctiform type of radiological change than in cases showing the larger micronodular and nodular opacities.

Respiratory symptoms and pulmonary function in coal miners: Looking into the effects of simple pneumoconiosis

“…The occurrence of emphysema is related to cumulative exposure to respirable dust, although it is also closely related to smoking and ageing [Miller and Jacobsen, 1985;Parks, 1994]. As to whether increased risk of emphysema is related to simple CWP, the findings have been inconsistent [Ryder et al, 1970;Cockcroft et al, 1982;Ruckley et al, 1984]. Our data could not provide evidence to support the hypothesis that simple CWP is a contributing factor to emphysema.…”

Pulmonary Disability in Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis

“…However, we have already given reasons (Ryder et al, 1970a(Ryder et al, , 1970c why we believe the operation of such biases to be minimal in our miners. Also as all the miners had attended the Pneumoconiosis Medical Panel the results might not be applicable to pneumoconiosis cases in general in the area if there were good reasons to believe that a substantial number of cases existed which were unknown to the Panel.…”

“…As we have already pointed out (Ryder et al, 1970a(Ryder et al, , 1970c, a few of the category 0 cases had radiological changes which were not considered to represent pneumoconiosis by most of the observers and an alternative diagnosis was preferred, this being emphysema in four cases and fibrosing alveolitis in three cases. All of these showed a comparatively substantial degree of pneumoconiosis usually with extensive emphysema at necropsy and several of the cases labelled category 1 or category 1 plus emphysema had similar pathological findings.…”

“…The method of its collection and investigation has already been given in full detail (Ryder et al, 1970a) so only a brief summary of them is given here together with some additional relevant physiological data.…”

Emphysema and occupational exposure to industrial pollutants.

“…0355-3140/81/040290-8 sure (14,33), coal mining (31), air pollution (17), and exposure to nitrous fumes (19) have all been associated with emphysema. In animal experiments phosgene (8) and low levels of nitrogen dioxide (13) have been shown to produce the disease.…”