M10.8 Blog about an occupationally-related disease

The primary pneumoconioses are asbestosis, silicosis, and coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (commonly referred to as CWP or black lung). As their names imply, they are caused by inhalation of asbestos fibers, silica dust, and coal mine dust. Typically, these three diseases take many years to develop and be manifested, although in some cases – silicosis, particularly – rapidly progressive forms can occur after only short periods of intense exposure. When severe, the diseases often lead to lung impairment, disability, and premature death. From a public health perspective, these conditions are entirely man-made, and can be avoided through appropriate dust control (CDC, 2017).

The Respiratory Health Division within NIOSH published the first Work-Related Lung Disease (WoRLD) Surveillance Report in 1991 (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/91-113/). This report presents data for asbestosis, coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, silicosis, byssinosis, exposure to cotton dust, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, toxic agents, dust diseases of the lung, and Black Lung compensation for 1968–1987.
To continue to provide surveillance information and access to data for public health action, the content presented in the 2007 WoRLD Surveillance Report was made available on-line through an electronic surveillance system. This surveillance system became the Work-Related Lung Disease Surveillance System (eWoRLD). Since 2008, eWoRLD has gone through three revisions and has provided morbidity, mortality, and workplace exposures data on work-related respiratory diseases by geographic region, industry and occupation, and demographic groups. Diseases include pneumoconioses, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, respiratory tuberculosis, pneumonia and influenza, and certain cancers. Exposures include asbestos, coal mine dust, cotton dust, pneumoconiotic agents, and respirable quartz and cristobalite. Black Lung compensation and Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/surveillance/ords/CoalWorkersHealthSurvProgram.html) data are also available (NIOSH, 2018).

On August 1, 2014, MSHA’s landmark respirable dust rule went into effect, adding a number of increased protections for coal miners and closing several loopholes that masked their exposure to unhealthy coal mine dust. Respirable coal dust sampling results for the first year of the rule—containing those new protections—show that compliance is achievable and, most importantly, that the nation’s coal miners are now, more than ever before, better protected from the debilitating and deadly black lung disease (United States Department of Labor, 2018)

References:

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). (2017, August 24). Retrieved October 30, 2018, from https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/pneumoconioses/default.html

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2018, from https://wwwn.cdc.gov/eworld/Home/History

United States Department of Labor. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2018, from https://www.msha.gov/news-media/special-initiatives/2016/09/28/respirable-dust-rule-historic-step-forward-effort-end