BACKGROUND Clinical and epidemiological studies have given discordant results on the usefulness of the level of circulating elastin peptide (EP), a potential marker of both elastin destruction (a key phenomenon in pulmonary emphysema) and neosynthesis, for assessing structural changes in the lung extracellular matrix. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between levels o...

As an ophthalmic and aural surgeon practising in a colliery area, I meet many cases of miners' nystagmus in miners' hospitals, and mnany cases are referred to me by colliery companies and the South Wales Miners' Federation. I feel I have some advantage over some previous investigators, I am both an ophthalmic and an aural surgeon; I have not read any literature which states that the inner ear h...

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was comparison of cancer incidence risk of lungs, stomach, colon, bladder and kidneys from ex-miners of black coal mines and the general male population of the Czech Republic. MATERIALS AND METHODS The analysis was conducted in two cohorts of ex-miners according to the presence of coalworkers' pneumoconiosis (CWP). The first cohort included the miners without CW...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the alterations of biomarkers in the development and progression of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP). METHODS The type and number of cells, and the levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), pulmonary surfactant protein, phospholipids and fibronectin in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were assayed in 14 health active coal miners, 21 coal miners without CWP and 13 ...

Pneumoconiosis is still a health problem in Turkey and has a relatively high incidence. Retired underground miners were investigated to document alveolitis, and to observe the difference in the cellular profiles of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid with or without pneumoconiosis. Twenty nine retired male miners and 17 controls, eight non-smokers (four male, four female) and nine smokers (six m...

Mortality from lung cancer was greater in Ontario uranium miners than in the general male population of Ontario (observed = 152, expected = 67.6, standardised mortality ratio 225, 95% confidence interval 191-264). Part of the excess of lung cancer may be because the proportion of men who are smokers or have smoked is greater in uranium miners than in Ontario men. Smoking does not explain the wh...

Safety attitude is of vital importance to accident prevention, and the high accident rate in the coal mining industry makes it urgent to undertake research on coal miners’ safety attitude. However, the current literature still lacks a valid and reliable safety attitude measurement scale for coal miners, which stands as a barrier against their safety attitude improvement. In this study, a scale ...