By the mid-19th century about 200,000 miners were employed in a UK coal mining industry still growing with the advances of the Industrial Revolution. Coal miners were long known to suffer poor health but the link to inhaling dust in the mines had not been made. In 1813 George Pearson was the first to suggest that darkening of lungs seen in normal individuals as they aged was caused by inhaled s...

The pneumoconioses are associated with chronic inflammatory processes during which increased amounts of reactive oxygen species are formed in the lower respiratory tract. To characterize the effect(s) of these processes on the defense system against free radicals, we studied 91 individuals with long-term occupational exposure to coal mine dust. Thirty-one subjects were classified with radiologi...

Occupational asthma in coal miners is hardly recognised. A report is presented of a coal miner whose clinical picture suggested a respiratory allergy which occurred only in the mine where he worked. Serum specific IgE levels, skin tests, and bronchial provocation tests with different commercial extracts showed sensitisation to Rhizopus nigricans. Rhizopus spp were found inside the mine, as demo...

As the percentage of shifts in hot working conditions in German Coal mines had increased to more than 50% during the last decade, a study was carried out to record the physiological strain of miners. Thirty-eight miners participated during 125 shifts. Heart rate and rectal temperature were measured continuously. Sweat losses as well as food and fluid uptake were estimated from measurements befo...