Relation between dust exposure and lung function in miners and ex-miners.

Abstract

A sample of men working in the British coal industry in the 1950s has been followed up and examined 22 years later. The relations between lung function and individual cumulative exposure to respirable dust have been studied in 1867 men who were still working in the industry at the time of follow up and 2192 men who had left. Levels of forced expired volume in one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), and FEV1/FVC ratio at follow up were found to be inversely related to exposure to respirable dust after allowing for other factors, even in men without pneumoconiosis. The magnitude of this estimated effect was equivalent to a loss of 228 ml FEV1 in response to an exposure of 300 gh/m3, a moderately high exposure for this group. Ex-miners aged under 65 had worse lung function than miners on average, suggesting that ill health had encouraged some of these men to leave the industry. Whereas a more severe response to dust exposure among ex-miners under 65 was suggested, this difference could easily have arisen by chance. The presence of symptoms of chronic bronchitis was associated with reduced levels of lung function, however, and, additionally, ex-miners under 65 with chronic bronchitis showed a more severe response of the FVC to dust exposure than miners without these symptoms. Among these ex-miners with chronic bronchitis a small group of men who had taken other jobs showed a much more severe effect of dust exposure on their lung function than the average, likely in heavily exposed men to contribute importantly to disability. Men in this group who had given up smoking showed an even more severe effect of dust exposure, equivalent to a loss of 940 ml FEV1 in response to an exposure of 300 gh/m3. These results indicate that exposure to respirable dust can occasionally cause severe respiratory impairment in the absence of progressive massive fibrosis. Dust exposure was related to a parallel reduction of FEV1 and FVC, implying that the pathology of dust induced lung damage differs from that induced by smoking. This pattern of abnormality was shown by some non-smokers, whereas smokers and ex-smokers apparently severely affected by dust showed a classic obstructive pattern of abnormality with pronounced reduction of the FEV1/FVC ratio. These studies were based on men still at work in the coal industry; and, since ill-health may influence some men to leave their work, it has not been clear whether Acoepted 17 June 1985 the quantitative dust/disease relation estimated applied to all miners generally, or whether some men who had left the industry had suffered greater response to dust exposure than had been observed in working miners.The first aim of the present study was to confirm the previous finding of a relation between exposure to respirable dust and level of lung function, using a more representative group of British miners, better measures of dust exposure and of smoking habits, and a wider range of lung function measurements than before. The second and main aim was to examine whether men who left t...

Relationship between Chest X-ray Findings and Pulmonary Function Tests in Dust Workers

“…There are a large number of reports on the effect of smoking in reducing pulmonary function in pneumoconiosis 22,25,29,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37] . In this study, smoking habit was not analyzed, since a survey on smoking was not included in the pneumoconiosis health examination.…”

Spirometry in a population of coal miners in Paipa, Colombia

“…En un grupo de mineros de un distrito de Nottinghamshire con edades entre 40 y 70 años (39), valorado con pruebas de función pulmonar, se observó un déficit medio en el VEF 1 cuantificado en un litro o más con respecto a los valores de FEV 1 predichos, lo cual reafirma la constancia en la disminución de este parámetro de la función pulmonar y de la relación entre CVF y VEF 1 , como se constató en este estudio y en otros más en el contexto internacional (40)(41)(42).…”

Cross sectional study on lung function of coke oven workers: a lung function surveillance system from 1978 to 1990

“…Smoking usually causes a lung function pattern typical of obstructive lung disease, which is associated with decreased FEV 1 /FVC. 15 Both FEV 1 and FVC have been reported to be lowered by similar amounts by coal dust, 29 which might be interpreted as damage at the alveolar level. 31 For active non-smoking coal miners, the FEV 1 loss was reported by Bates et al to be around 46 ml/year and that for FVC was around 40 ml/year.…”