Coal mine dust lung disease in miners killed in the Upper Big Branch disaster: a review of lung pathology and contemporary respirable dust levels in underground US coal mines

Conclusions
Although higher than average respirable dust and quartz levels were observed at UBB, over 200 US underground coal mines had higher dust concentrations than UBB and over 100 exceeded the PEL more frequently. Together with lung histopathological findings among UBB fatalities, these data suggest exposures leading to CWP in the USA are more prevalent than previously understood.

Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - April 12, 2022 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Go, L. H. T., Green, F. H. Y., Abraham, J. L., Churg, A., Petsonk, E. L., Cohen, R. A. Tags: Workplace Source Type: research