INDIVIDUAL FACTORS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF COAL MINERS ' PNEUMOCONIOSIS

Abstract—More than 200 miners from two specially contrasting groups were examined according to different medical history, clinical, immunological, lung function and blood gas analysis criteria. The miners of the first group were already affected by simple pneumoconiosis, though their dust exposures had been relatively small, in contrast to the second group who had received higher dust exposures but showed no clear indication of lung modifications due to dust. In general, members of the second group had less favourable respiratory symptoms and lung functions than the first group. Although certain parameters were significantly different, we cannot definitely say whether the resistant group has a predisposition to pneumoconiosis. PREVIOUS EPIDEMIOLOGICAL studies in the hard coal mining industry show distinctly that, even with comparable dust exposure, individual differences in the development of pneumoconiosis occur. Some miners show radiologically recognizable lung modifi-cations after a relatively low dust exposure. For the special protection of these susceptible miners knowledge of individual factors characterizing particular predispo-sition to pneumoconiosis is required. To examine the role of personal factors, we formed two contrasting groups of miner