Important deficits of lung function in three modern colliery populations. Relations with dust exposure

Journal Article · Thu Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1993 · American Review of Respiratory Disease; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1164/ajrccm/147.4.797· OSTI ID:6773596

Soutar, C; Campbell, S; Gurr, D; Lloyd, M; Love, R; Cowie, H; Cowie, A; Seaton, A ^[1]

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1. Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh (United Kingdom)

To determine whether dust-related clinically important deficits of lung function still occur in British coal miners we have analyzed the relationship between lifetime cumulative exposure to respirable dust and risk of defined functional deficits in a population of miners who were examined between 1981 and 1986. The study group consisted of a sample of men who had worked at any one of three collieries (South Wales, Yorkshire, and North East England) between 1970, when new dust standards were introduced, and date of medical survey. There were 1,671 men studied, including men who had left the collieries. Clinically important deficits of FEV1 from predicted values derived in this population were defined by comparisons with questionnaire data on exercise tolerance limited by breathlessness. The mean FEV1 of men in the South Wales colliery, for example, who said they had to stop for breath when walking at their own pace on level ground was 942 ml less than the predicted value for nonsmokers after taking age and stature into account. Individual cumulative exposures to respirable dust were calculated from a long-term program of measurements of dust concentrations and occupational records commencing in 1953. In the three colliery populations, 24, 24, and 12% in South Wales, Yorkshire, and the North East, respectively, had FEV1 deficits that were at least as severe as the average deficit associated with the severe grade of exertional dyspnea described above. In all collieries deficits were more common in smokers than in nonsmokers, and more common in men who had left the industry than in men still within it.

• OSTI ID: 6773596
• Journal Information: American Review of Respiratory Disease; (United States), Journal Name: American Review of Respiratory Disease; (United States) Vol. 147:4; ISSN ARDSBL; ISSN 0003-0805
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
016000 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Health & Safety
560300* -- Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ADULTS
AGE GROUPS
AGED ADULTS
ANIMALS
BREATH
BRITISH COAL
COAL MINERS
COAL MINING
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DISEASES
DUSTS
ELDERLY PEOPLE
EUROPE
EXERCISE
HUMAN POPULATIONS
MAMMALS
MAN
MINERS
MINING
MINORITY GROUPS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
PERSONNEL
PNEUMOCONIOSES
POPULATIONS
PRIMATES
RESPIRATION
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM DISEASES
RISK ASSESSMENT
TIME DEPENDENCE
UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED KINGDOM ORGANIZATIONS
VERTEBRATES
VOLUME