Life Expectancy of Pennsylvania Coal Miners Compensated for Disability

Abstract

From December 1965 through December 1967, 13,000 Pennsylvania coal miners were awarded compensation for complete disability due to coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP). Standardized mortality ratios compare all deaths occurring in a sample of 4,004 of these men with deaths expected (1959 to 1961) of white men in Pennsylvania; similar ratios are shown for anthracite and bituminous miners by category and stage of CWP and, in some cases, according to whether the ratio of forced expiratory volume during the first second of a forced exhalation after maximum inhalation to vital capacity (FEV₁/FVC) was greater or less than 55%. Excess deaths were found primarily in subjects with a reduced ventilatory capacity, and secondarily with complicated CWP of stage C or, for anthracite miners, stage B. No excess deaths were found for simple CWP or stage A complicated with FEV₁/FVC more than 55%.