Search citation statements
Paper Sections
Citation Types
Year Published
Publication Types
Relationship
Authors
Journals
The objectives of this study are to elucidate the early history of risk for pneumococcal pneumonia from occupational exposure to metal fumes and dusts, and to demonstrate the importance of searching older literature when performing reviews. We performed manual searching for articles in the Library of the Surgeon General's Office (the precursor to Index Medicus), in the Hathi Trust database, in PubMed, andby screening reference lists in literature appearing before the introduction of PubMed. An early body of literature, from the 1890s onward, recognized that pneumonia was linked to "Thomas slag," a steel industry byproduct containing iron, manganese, and lime. Researchers, mainly in Germany, showed that workers in metal-dust-exposed occupations, especially using manganese, manifested an increased incidence of pneumococcal pneumonia. An outbreak of pneumococcal pneumonia in the 1930s implicated manganese fume in its etiology. In the immediate post-World War II period, there was a brief flurry of interest in pneumonia from exposure to potassium permanganate that was soon dismissed as a chemical pneumonitis. After a hiatus of two decades, epidemiologic investigations drew attention to the pneumonia risks of welding and related metal fume exposure, bringing renewed interest to the forgotten role of pneumococcal pneumonia as an occupational disease. Occupational or environmental inhalation of manganese, iron, or irritants may be causally related to increased pneumococcal pneumonia risk. In particular, the risk associated with manganese seems to be overlooked in recent literature. An important conclusion is the importance of obtaining additional evidence through a deeper assessment of the literature in a broad historical context.
The objectives of this study are to elucidate the early history of risk for pneumococcal pneumonia from occupational exposure to metal fumes and dusts, and to demonstrate the importance of searching older literature when performing reviews. We performed manual searching for articles in the Library of the Surgeon General's Office (the precursor to Index Medicus), in the Hathi Trust database, in PubMed, andby screening reference lists in literature appearing before the introduction of PubMed. An early body of literature, from the 1890s onward, recognized that pneumonia was linked to "Thomas slag," a steel industry byproduct containing iron, manganese, and lime. Researchers, mainly in Germany, showed that workers in metal-dust-exposed occupations, especially using manganese, manifested an increased incidence of pneumococcal pneumonia. An outbreak of pneumococcal pneumonia in the 1930s implicated manganese fume in its etiology. In the immediate post-World War II period, there was a brief flurry of interest in pneumonia from exposure to potassium permanganate that was soon dismissed as a chemical pneumonitis. After a hiatus of two decades, epidemiologic investigations drew attention to the pneumonia risks of welding and related metal fume exposure, bringing renewed interest to the forgotten role of pneumococcal pneumonia as an occupational disease. Occupational or environmental inhalation of manganese, iron, or irritants may be causally related to increased pneumococcal pneumonia risk. In particular, the risk associated with manganese seems to be overlooked in recent literature. An important conclusion is the importance of obtaining additional evidence through a deeper assessment of the literature in a broad historical context.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.