Pneumoconiosis Information
Pneumoconiosis is an occupational lung disease and a restrictive lung disease caused by the inhalation of dust, often in mines.
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Types
Depending upon the type of dust, the disease is given different names:
- Coalworker's pneumoconiosis (also known as "black lung" or anthracosis) - coal, carbon
- Asbestosis - asbestos
- Silicosis (also known as "grinder's disease") - silica
- Bauxite fibrosis - bauxite
- Berylliosis - beryllium
- Siderosis - iron
- Byssinosis - cotton
- Silicosiderosis - mixed dust containing silica and iron
- Labrador Lung (found in miners in Labrador, Canada) - mixed dust containing iron, silica and anthophyllite, a type of asbestos
In addition, it has been speculated that astronauts subject to prolonged exposure to lunar dust may be susceptible to a type of pneumoconiosis. No cases exist yet, but future Moon missions are expected to take precautions against such exposure.
Diagnosis
Positive indications on patient assessment:
- Shortness of breath
- Chest X-ray may show a characteristic patchy, subpleural, bibasilar interstitial infiltrates or small cystic radiolucencies called honeycombing
Pneumoconiosis in combination with multiple pulmonary rheumatoid nodules in rheumatoid arthritis patients is known as Caplan's syndrome.[1]
Other work-related lung diseases
- Popcorn workers lung disease - Diacetyl emissions and airborne dust from butter flavorings used in microwave popcorn production
Popular culture references
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- A longer, factitious term is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
- In the classic British film Brief Encounter (1945), derived from a Noel Coward play, housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) and physician Alec (Trevor Howard) begin an affair. She is desperately mesmerized in a train station lounge by his evocation of his passion for pneumoconioses.
- In the 1995 British film Brassed Off, the band leader (Pete Postlethwaite) in a small coal-mining town is hospitalized with pneumoconiosis.
- African-American a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock wrote a song "More Than a Paycheck," about work-related illnesses. It includes the lyrics, "We bring asbestosis, silicosis, brown lung, black lung disease."
- In the 2001 film Zoolander, starring Ben Stiller, he claims to have "The Black Lung" after working in a coal mine for one day.
- 2006 documentary film by Shane Roberts. Features interviews with miners suffering from the disease and footage shot inside the mine
- 1000 Ways to Die featured an incident where two kitchen workers succumb to Pneumoconiosis from playing in cocoa powder.
See also
- Coalworker's pneumoconiosis
- Black Lung Benefits Act of 1973
- Chalicosis
- Philip D'Arcy Hart
- Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
References
- ^ Andreoli, Thomas, ed. CECIL Essentials of Medicine. Saunders: Pennsylvania, 2004. p. 737.
A Cochrane and M Blythe (1989) "One Man's Medicine, an autobiography of Professor Archie Cochrane". London, BMJ Books. (Paperback edition, 2009, by Cardiff University Publications (available from the Cochrane Library, Cardiff).
External links
- NIOSH Safety and Health Topic: Pneumoconioses
- Black Lung Benefits Act - U.S. Department of Labor
- Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis - The Merck Manuals: Online Medical Library
- Black Lung - United Mine Workers of America
- Black Lung - U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration
- A Conversation about Mining and Black Lung Disease
- Flavorings-Related Lung Disease
Categories: Mine safety | Coal | Occupational diseases | Lung diseases due to external agents
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