Background: Radiographic shadows of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) are commonly described as predominantly in the upper lung zones. Methods: We evaluated the lung distribution of small opacities on surveillance chest radiographs (CXRs) taken between 1981 and 2010 among 2,467 underground US coal miners. All had evidence of pneumoconiosis (category >/=1/0), based on the contemporary International Labour Office Classification of Radiographs of Pneumoconioses. Results: Small opacity involvement was approximately equal over all lung zones, with 30.7% of the total involvement reported in the upper zones, 37.1% in the middle zones, and 32.1% in the lower zones. Primarily rounded opacities were seen in 62.1% of miners and primarily irregular opacities were seen in 37.9%. Miners with primarily rounded opacities had a distribution with moderate upper zone predominance (upper ¼ 36.8%, middle ¼ 36.5%, and lower ¼ 27.2%). In contrast, miners with primarily irregular opacities showed a lower zone preponderance (upper ¼ 20.5%, middle ¼ 38.4%, and lower ¼ 41.1%). Conclusion: The distribution of small pneumoconiotic opacities on surveillance CXRs of working US coal miners is not consistent with the conventional expectations of upper lung zone predominance.
Dr. A. Scott Laney, PhD, Surveillance Branch, Division of respiatory Disease Studies, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1095 Willowdale Rd, Mail Stop HG900.2, Mrogantown, WV 26505-2888
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.