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J R Coll Physicians Edinb 2017 Sep;47(3):296-302

K Donaldson, Surgeons' Hall Museums, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DW, UK. Email:

By the mid-19th century about 200,000 miners were employed in a UK coal mining industry still growing with the advances of the Industrial Revolution. Coal miners were long known to suffer poor health but the link to inhaling dust in the mines had not been made. In 1813 George Pearson was the first to suggest that darkening of lungs seen in normal individuals as they aged was caused by inhaled soot from burning oil, candles and coal, which were the common domestic sources of heat and light. Read More

Radiol Clin North Am 2016 Nov 27;54(6):1077-1096. Epub 2016 Aug 27.

Department of Radiology, 1959 Northeast Pacific Street, RR 215, Box 357115, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.

Occupational lung diseases span a variety of pulmonary disorders caused by inhalation of dusts or chemical antigens in a vocational setting. Included in these are the classic mineral pneumoconioses of silicosis, coal worker's pneumoconiosis, and asbestos-related diseases as well as many immune-mediated and airway-centric diseases, and new and emerging disorders. Although some of these have characteristic imaging appearances, a multidisciplinary approach with focus on occupational exposure history is essential to proper diagnosis. Read More

Ind Health 2009 Aug;47(4):443-8

Charles University in Prague, First Faculty of Medicine, Department of Occupational Medicine of First Faculty of Medicine and General Teaching Hospital, 120 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic.

Between 1992 and 2005, 72 cases of occupational hypersensitive pneumonitis were reported to the Czech National Registry of Occupational Diseases. This represented 0.24% of all occupational diseases reported in the Czech Republic during that period. Read More

BMJ Case Rep 2009 2;2009. Epub 2009 Feb 2.

Royal Victoria Infirmary and University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Royal Victoria Infirmary and University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle, NE1 4LP, UK.

This case involves a 36 year old non-smoker who worked in a factory producing food flavourings for potato crisps. He developed exertional breathlessness associated with fixed airway obstruction shortly after an uncharacteristically high exposure to the food flavouring chemical diacetyl. Unfortunately, even though he was removed from further exposure to this agent, his symptoms and spirometry did not improve. Read More

Int Arch Occup Environ Health 2005 Aug 12;78(7):593-602. Epub 2005 Jul 12.

Hamburg State Department for Science and Health, Institute for Occupational Medicine, University of Hamburg, Germany.

Objective: To present recent data on the occurrence of non-malignant occupational airway diseases in Germany and to compare mainly affected occupations of obstructive airway diseases caused by allergens and irritants with available surveillance data from other countries.

Methods: Sources of German data were statistics for the year 2003 of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and of the federation of statutory accident insurance institutions for the industrial sector.

Results: Confirmed cases of non-malignant occupational respiratory diseases in Germany are mainly benign asbestos-associated diseases (occupational disease no. Read More

Environ Health Perspect 2000 Aug;108 Suppl 4:665-74

UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA.

Exposures to asbestos and synthetic fibers remain areas of great concern in the field of occupational lung disease. Despite extensive study, the health effects associated with fibers remains an area of substantial controversy. In particular, effects of fibers at relatively low doses, particularly for mesothelioma, remain a matter of evolving opinion, especially when integrated with the divergence of opinion on relative pathogenicity of different fiber types. Read More

Am J Ind Med 1995 Apr;27(4):471-83

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH 45226, USA.

Since 1988, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has notified workers who were subjects in occupational epidemiology studies of the study findings ("worker notification"). This paper describes seven notifications and the worker's reactions to them. The chemicals of interest in the studies were: carbon monoxide, o-toluidine, bis-chloromethyl ether, polychlorinated biphenyls, cadmium, acid mist, and dioxin. Read More

Nihon Ika Daigaku Zasshi 1994 Nov;61(6):590-601

Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.

Aromatic nitro- and amino-compounds (ANA) are notorious methemoglobin forming substances. From 1987 to 1993, the author surveyed the exposure level to ANA and health status of workers in a chemical industry where they synthetize nitrophenol and anisidine from chloro-nitrobenzene. The ANA exposure indicator was the diazo-reaction positive substance in the worker's urine (Dz) and the biological effect of ANA was monitored through the methemoglobin concentration in the blood (MHb). Read More

Lung 1994 ;172(6):347-54

Ruhr-University Bochum, Department of Molecular Genetics, Germany.

Coal worker's pneumoconiosis is caused by the pulmonary deposition of coal dust, including silica particles. Several factors such as chemical composition and physical properties of silica-containing dust, particle size distribution, intensity, and duration of exposure influence the disease development. Genetic factors may also be involved. Read More

J Allergy Clin Immunol 1991 May;87(5):1002-9

First Department of Internal Medicine, Kumamoto University Medical School, Japan.

We performed a nationwide epidemiologic study of hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) in Japan by questionnaire and found that 835 cases of HP were recognized during the 1980s; 74.4% were summer-type HP, 8.1% farmer's lung, 4. Read More