The Prevalence of Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis in US Coal Miners

Abstract

The National lnstitute of Occupational Safety and Health of the US public Health Service recently completed the first round of a large field study to determine the prevalence of coal workers, pneumoconiosis in working US coal miners. Between October 1969 and July 1971 a total of 9,076 miners from 29 bituminous and 2 anthracite mines were examined. An overall prevalence of nearly 30% was found. However, progressive massive fibrosis occurred in only 2.5% of the sample. when the data were broken down according to the geographic region in which the mine is situated, marked regional differences in prevalence were apparent. Thus, while 45% of the Eastern Pennsylvania anthracite miners had simple pneumoconiosis and a further 14% had progressive massive fibrosis, the comparable figures for bituminous miners in Colorado were 4.6% and 0%. No obvious cause for these disparities in prevalence was apparent.