Coal-mine owners are required to measure miner exposures to respirable dust so that compliance with Federal health regulations can be monitored. This study analyzes the problem of possible underreporting of dust exposures. Using two statistical approaches, data for three mining occupations in 54 large underground coal mines during 1976-1978 are examined for evidence of underreporting. First, re...

Experimental and field work on silicosis, while concentrating attention on the danger of exposure to the dust from hard rock, has produced a sense of false security in regard to the coal miner. Mavrogordato (1918) stated: " It may be regarded as established that all forms of dust enter the lungs and that some, such as coal, are relatively harmless, while others, such as flint, are deadly ". Bro...

Silicosis and coal worker's pneumoconiosis are serious occupational respiratory diseases associated with the coal mining industry and the inhalation of respirable dusts containing crystalline silica. The purpose of this study (funded by the Mine Health and Safety Council of South Africa) was to evaluate the individual contributions of underground coal mining tasks to the respirable dust and res...

For estimating reliable exposure-response relations it is necessary that random variation in both the response and the exposure variables be sufficiently small. Variability in cumulative exposures can arise from uncertainties in self-reported work histories from interviews. In most epidemiologic surveys, the information gathered from questionnaires is used without knowing the validity or reprod...

In Colombia, coal miner pneumoconiosis is considered a public health problem due to its irreversibility, high cost on diagnosis, and lack of data related to its prevalence in the country. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was carried out in order to determine the prevalence of pneumoconiosis in underground coal mining workers in two regions of Colombia. The results showed a 35.9% prevalence of...

OBJECTIVES To determine if the rate of change in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) in subjects with high exposure to Latrobe Valley brown coal dust was significantly greater than the rate of change among subjects with low exposure. METHODS A retrospective dynamic cohort design with variable time windows. This study was conducted over a period of 14 years from 1980 to 1994 and used...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate respiratory related mortality among underground coal miners after 37 years of follow-up. METHODS Underlying cause of death for 9033 underground coal miners from 31 US mines enrolled between 1969 and 1971 was evaluated with life table analysis. Cox proportional hazards models were fitted to evaluate the exposure-response relationships between cumulative exposure to coal ...

There can be no doubt that coalworkers' pneumoconiosis presents one of the most serious problems in industrial medicine in Britain, at least in respect of the numbers of men affected. From 1931 up to the end of 1949 some 36,000 men had been officially diagnosed by the Silicosis Medical Board or the Pneumoconiosis Panels of the Ministry of National Insurance as being disabled by the disease. Ove...

Dust dose and composition do not appear to account wholly for changes in the prevalence of coal workers' pneumoconiosis in Europe. In certain coal pits high progression evidently occurred with relatively low dust exposure or vice versa, whereas progression in relation to dust levels might be variable. Exceptionally high quartz concentrations occur in coal mine dust when pneumoconiosis may progr...

The increasing trend of opencast coal mining in India tends to release huge amounts of dust. But there is no well-defined method of estimating dust emission due to different coal mining activities. This paper examines the sources of dust emission due to coal mining activities, and focuses on the quantification of dust emission with the development and use of emission factors. Because of their s...