Pneumoconiosis
| Pneumoconiosis | |
|---|---|
| Specialty | Pulmonology  |
Pneumoconiosis, also known as "coal workers' pneumoconiosis",miner's asthma, or black lung disease, is a lung condition caused by the inhalation of dust, characterized by formation of nodular fibrotic changes in lungs. These changes may be in the form of industrial bronchitis, a condition which abates 3 to 6 months following the ceasation of exposure, or permanent changes in the lung parenchyma, taking the form of macules, micronodules, macronodules, or progressive massive fibrosis. The changes may be exhibited on chest x-rays or CT scans of the chest. Rarely does simple pneumoconiosis cause significant pulmonary problems. Coal miners with simple coal workers' pneumoconiosis with obstructive airways disfunction usually have been or are tabocco smokers. Many substances can cause pneumoconiosis including asbestos,talc, coal mine dust, kaolinite, and other metal compounds.
Depending on the type of dust, variants of the disease are considered. For example there are silicosis, also known as grinders' disease; and pneumosilicosis, which is caused by the inhalation of the dust of stone, sand, or flint containing silica. Because many common minerals contain silica, there are different types of silicosis. The term "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" was coined in 1935 as the putative longest word in the English language, but means exactly the same as pneumoconiosis.
Pneumoconiosis in combination with multiple pulmonary rheumatoid nodules in rheumatoid arthritis patients is known as Caplan's syndrome.[1]
Incidents
The Hawk's Nest incident in West Virginia during the Great Depression was one of the earliest and most prominent incidents of large-scale silicosis deaths. But while stringent occupational safety reforms have largely eliminated it in Europe, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the United States estimates that a million workers remain at risk to silicosis, 100,000 of whom are at high risk. They estimate 59,000 will develop adverse effects.
On November 19, 1968, at the Consol No. 9 Mine, near Farmington, W.Va., a massive explosion ripped through the mine ending in 78 deaths. The bodies of 59 disaster victims were brought to the surface, but 19 remain entombed in the sealed coal mine. The disaster served a catalyst for passage of the 1969 Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act. 30 U.S.C. 901 et seq. That law strengthened safety standards, increased Federal mine inspections, and gave coal miners specific safety and health rights. It provided lifetime disability benefits to coal miners totally disabled due to coal workers' pneumoconiosis and to the survivors of miners whose deaths were caused by coal workers' pneumoconiosis.
A 1992 Houston Chronicle investigation found "silicosis is often misdiagnosed by doctors, disdained by industry officials and unknown to the very workers who stand the greatest chance of getting it. ... Old warnings and medical studies have been ignored, products falsely advertised and government rules flouted--especially with regard to sandblasting, an activity so hazardous that NIOSH recommended its banning in 1974." In a 249-page order intended to “serve notice . . . that truth matters in a courtroom no less than in a doctor’s office,” a federal district court has found that the vast majority of approximately 10,000 silicosis claims consolidated in multidistrict litigation (“MDL”) “were essentially manufactured on an assembly line” run by plaintiffs’ lawyers,screening companies and doctors. U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack’s June 30 order sharply criticized the plaintiffs’ diagnoses, granted a motion for sanctions against a plaintiff law firm and concluded that most of the MDL cases should be remanded to state court for further proceedings. In re: Silica Products Liability Litigation, MDL Docket No. 1553 (S.D. Texas 2005).
Types
See also
References
- ^ Andreoli, Thomas, ed. CECIL Essentials of Medicine. Saunders: Pennsylvania, 2004. p. 737.