IN THIS Cardiff Symposium of the Postgraduate Medical Journal, I should first explain why the Pathology Department of the Welsh National School of Medicine became interested in emphysema as one of its main subjects for research. It arose out of a study of thousands of respiratory cripples in the coal mining industry. In the early part of this century coal miners were a healthy population apart ...

In the early 20 th century Japan, coal mining firms took an intermediary organization of labor, “dormitory system.” Given traditional technology that required high manual skills unknown to managements, firms relied on the intermediary organization both for screening and monitoring workers. This study focuses on referrers of miners, who took an essential role of signaling in the coal mining indu...

Outbursts of gas and rocks are one of the serious hazards, occurring in the underground mining. There were numerous examples of the large catastrophes in mines, caused by this phenomenon, with a lot of casualties among miners. According to Hargraves [2], the outburst is a sudden release of gas and coal from the freshly exposed coal face during exploitation of the seams or during driving accessi...

Background-Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are now recognised complications of occupational exposure to coal dust, and since 1992 compensation has been available for miners with impaired lung function provided that they also have x ray film evidence of pneumoconiosis. However, many miners with heavy exposure to coal dust and impairment of lung function therefore do not qualify for compensation...

AIM Several studies suggest that coal miners are under risk of severe health problems such as cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, renal, hematological and musculoskeletal disorders. However, there are limited data on biochemical changes in underground workers. In our study we aimed to evaluate the association between serum homocysteine (Hcy), vitamin B12, cystatin C and folate levels in th...

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was comparison of cancer incidence risk of lungs, stomach, colon, bladder and kidneys from ex-miners of black coal mines and the general male population of the Czech Republic. MATERIALS AND METHODS The analysis was conducted in two cohorts of ex-miners according to the presence of coalworkers' pneumoconiosis (CWP). The first cohort included the miners without CW...