Occupational and environmental medicine
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To investigate the role of occupational exposure to chlorinated solvents in lung cancer aetiology. ⋯ These results suggest that exposure to PCE may constitute a risk factor for lung cancer, especially among women, who seem to have a higher prevalence of exposure than men.
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To describe the prevalence of lung function abnormality and coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) by mine size among underground coal miners in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. ⋯ More than one in four of these miners had evidence of CWP, abnormal lung function or both. Although 96% of miners in the study have worked exclusively under dust regulations implemented following the 1969 Federal Coal Mine Safety and Health Act, we observed high rates of respiratory disease including severe cases. The current approach to dust control and provision of safe work conditions for central Appalachian underground coal miners is not adequate to protect them from adverse respiratory health effects.