Respiratory function of Witwatersrand gold-miners; a comparison between radiologically normal miners and control non-mining subjects.

The diagnosis of pneumoconiosis during life depends upon an industrial history and radiological examination (Carpenter, Cochrane, Gilson, and Higgins, 1956). However, many miners complain of dyspnoea but have no radiological changes at all. This has led to the supposition that long exposure to industrial dust hazards may lead to pulmonary disability which is not typical pneumoconiosis (Carpenter, and others, 1956; Pemberton, 1956). This disability might be due to a forme fruste of pneumoconiosis or something different, such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema (Pemberton, 1956). It is obviously important in the first place to establish whether, in the mining population as a whole, there