Fractionation of the serum proteins by filter-paper electrophoresis in 14 coal-miners who had the characteristic radiological opacities of rheumatoid pneumoconiosis but no evidence of rheumatoid arthritis showed a reduction in the mean level of albumin and increases in the alpha-2 and gamma-globulins compared with the values in non-arthritic miners with simple coal-workers' pneumoconiosis and i...

Nationalisation of the coal industry by the 1945 Labour Government provided Britain with a unique opportunity for preventing the disablement of coal miners. At that time several thousand miners received disability benefits each year for pneumoconiosis in South Wales alone, and the Medical Research Council had started an important series of investigations into the relationships between dust expo...

A radiological follow-up of the miners and ex-miners in two Welsh mining valleys whose chest radiographs showed simple pneumoconiosis in 1950/51 has been carried out to study the factors associated with the attack rate of progressive massive fibrosis. The radiographs were read in pairs, and also with the pairs separated, the radiographs being randomized and identifying features concealed. The r...

To cite: Ng P. BMJ Case Rep Published online: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/bcr-2013200643 DESCRIPTION This 68-year-old man was followed up in the rheumatology clinic for his new onset rheumatoid arthritis. He is an ex-smoker with known 15% pneumoconiosis having worked in a coal mine for 30 years. He had a routine chest X-ray (CXR) prior to starting methotrexate which showed a 5 c...

Silicosis is usually a disease of long latency affecting mostly older workers; therefore, silicosis deaths in young adults (aged 15-44 years) suggests acute or accelerated disease.* To understand the circumstances surrounding silicosis deaths among young persons, CDC analyzed the underlying and contributing causes† of death using multiple cause-of-death data (1999-2015) and industry and occupat...

EDITOR,—Meijers et al presented a very interesting study on mortality of Dutch coal miners. Most of the coal miners, 3367 out of 3790 (89%), had radiological manifestations of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP). All the coal miners had an increased mortality due to ischaemic heart disease (IHD) in all four periods of follow up when compared with the total male population in the Netherlands. The...