Archives of pathology & laboratory medicine
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Dec 2011
Historical ArticleThe influence of dust standards on the prevalence and severity of coal worker's pneumoconiosis at autopsy in the United States of America.
Coal worker's pneumoconiosis is a major occupational lung disease in the United States. The disease is primarily controlled through reducing dust exposure in coal mines using technological improvements and through the establishment of dust standards by regulatory means. ⋯ The study confirms a beneficial impact of the first 25 years of the dust standard established by the 1969 act on the prevalence and severity of coal worker's pneumoconiosis in US coal miners. However, pneumoconiosis continues to occur among miners who have worked entirely within the contemporary standard, suggesting a need for further reductions in exposure to respirable coal mine dust.