The purpose of this study was to determine physical fitness level of lignite miners in the Czech Republic. The authors have examined a representative group of 152 active lignite miners by bicycle spiroergometry. The duration of employment in coal mines ranged between 5 and 32 years. The average age was 43.1 •} 4.7 years. The miners had an average peak oxygen consumption 2.9 •} 0.5 1.min-1, corr...

Fifty eight coal miners attended the Royal Gwent Accident and Emergency Department with serious hand injuries over a three year period. The commonest cause of the injuries was falling rock or coal from the pit roof crushing the hand and the commonest type of injury was the crushed, compound fracture of the terminal phalangeal area of the digit, with or without pulp loss. Records of the time off...

BACKGROUND Occupational exposure to coalmine dust consisting of coal particles and free silica eventually results in massive lung fibrosis. However, clinical observations of patients with coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) suggest that airway dysfunction may be a predominant feature in the initial development of the disease. METHODS Forced expirogram, plethysmographic determination of lung vo...

LncRNA-ATB (lncRNA was activated by transforming growth factor-β) has been reported to be involved in specific physiological and pathological processes in human diseases, and could serve as biomarkers for cancers. However, the role of lncRNA-ATB in coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) is still unknown. This study aimed to investigate the association between lncRNA-ATB and CWP. Quantitative real-t...

An area of major concern in considering increased coal production and utilization is the health and safety of increased numbers of workers who mine, process, or utilize coal. Hazards related to mining activities in the past have been especially serious, resulting in many mine related accidental deaths, disabling injuries, and disability and death from chronic lung disease. Underground coal mine...

Underground U.S. coal miners were studied cross-sectionally for the association of respirable coal mine dust exposure with pulmonary function and symptoms of airways obstruction. The study group included 1,185 miners participating in Round 4 of the National Study of Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis who had started mining in or after 1970 when comprehensive exposure regulations first came into effec...

Workers who are particularly susceptible to the effects of their occupational exposure, from the perspective of the healthy worker effect, soon leave the workplace. The result of this mobility, called survival bias, is that cross sectional studies based on the survivors underestimate the true risk of occupational exposures. Two questions are addressed in this empirical study of the "survival bi...

The clinical, histological, and biological features of 157 lung cancers in coal miners and ex-miners are presented. In most respects-age, bronchoscopic appearances, histological type, and symptoms -the two groups are similar. A high incidence of dyspnoea in the miners was attributed to the concurrence of chronic bronchopulmonary disease. A striking feature was the lower frequency with which lun...

Seaton, A., Lapp, N. L., and Morgan, W. K. C. (1972). Brit. J. industr. Med., 29, 50-55. Relationship of pulmonary impairment in simple coal workers' pneumoconiosis to type of radiographic opacity. From a group of 1 461 working coal miners who participated in an epidemiological study, 223 men with simple pneumoconiosis were selected on the basis of the type of small rounded opacity noted to be ...