Depending on the type of dust, variants of the disease are considered. For example there are silicosis, also known as grinders' disease; and pneumosilicosis, which is caused by the inhalation of the dust of stone, sand, or flint containing silica. Because many common minerals contain silica, there are different types of silicosis.

The term Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis and some variants thereof turned out to be a hoax created as a word puzzle.

Incidents

The Hawk's Nest incident was one of the earliest and most prominent incidents of large-scale silicosis deaths. But while stringent occupational reforms have largely eliminated it in Europe, the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) estimates that a million workers remain at risk to silicosis, 100,000 of whom are at high risk. They estimate 59,000 will develop adverse effects.

But due to pressure from industry groups, its effects are little known and hardly acted upon. A 1992 Houston Chronicle investigation found "silicosis is often misdiagnosed by doctors, disdained by industry officials and unknown to the very workers who stand the greatest chance of getting it. ... Old warnings and medical studies have been ignored, products falsely advertised and government rules flouted--especially with regard to sandblasting, an activity so hazardous that NIOSH recommended its banning in 1974."

Types

Bauxite pneumoconiosis
Black lung disease

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Lung Cancer Incidence In Pneumoconiosis - Abstract
From CHEST, 10/1/00 by Byung-Soon Choi

Byung-Soon Choi, MD, DrPH(*); Jung Keun Choi, MD, MPH; GeunRyang Bae, MD; Sung-Jin Kim, MD; Ji-Hong Kim, MD and Young Lim, MD, PhD. Occupational Diseases Research Center, Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute, Inchon, Korea; Department of Preventive Medicine, Dongguk University College of Medicine, Kyongju, Korea; Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Chungbuk University Hospital, Chungju, Korea and Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, St. Mary's Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

PURPOSE: This study was to investigate the risk of lung cancer in pneumoconiosis by comparing lung cancer incidence in pneumoconiosis with that in general population from 1992 to 1996. METHODS: Lung cancer cases in general population were selected from National Cancer Registry(NCR) and those with pneumoconiosis were selected from the following one or more group(s). 1) Radiologically suspicious cases by double reading during pneumoconiosis examinations or treatment of complications, 2) Pneumoconiosis patients whose names and identification numbers were found in NCR, 3) Lung cancer cases of NCR who had diagnosed as pneumoconiosis by review of medical records, 4) Pneumoconiosis patients who had primary lung cancer by autopsy. Risk group of lung cancer in pneumoconiosis were those having profusions 1/0 or more in the last pneumoconiosis examinations and selected from National Pneumoconiosis Registry. The deceased were considered to be alive until the last day of the respective year, and those without the exact date of death to be alive during the study periods. Lung cancer cases in pneumoconiosis found in NCR were defined as Registered Cases(RC), and the other cases as Non-Registered Cases(NRC).

RESULTS: RC and NRC were 71 and 95 cases, and all cases were previous miners except 6 cases. Annual average incidence of RC and total cases were 34.2 and 102.7 in forties, 99.7 and 211.0 in fifties, 172.5 and 427.7 in sixties, and 266.1 and 632.1 in seventies per 100,000 persons. Annual average incidence of RC and total cases were 150.0 and 290.0 in profusion 1, 58.9 and 167.0 in profusion 2, and 56.5 and 188.3 in profusion 3. That of RC and total cases were 111.4 and 240.7 in pneumoconiosis with small opacities only, and 129.0 and 430.0 in pneumoconiosis with small and large opacities. Annual average incidence of RC and total eases were 1.5(2.4 in forties, 1.5 in fifties, 0.95 in sixties, 1.1 in seventies) and 3.1 (7.1 in forties, 3.1 in fifties, 2.4 in sixties, 2.7 in seventies) times as large, comparing with that of general population.

CONCLUSION: Lung cancer risk in pneumoconiosis was higher (1.5 - 3.4 times) than that in general population and was not proportionate to the severity of pneumoconiosis. The difference of lung cancer incidence between two groups was larger in relatively young ages.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Pneumoconiosis patients, especially in previous miners and in young ages, are the definite risk group for lung cancer. So, it is necessary to confirm suspicious lung cancer in these high risk group.

GRANT SUPPORT: This study was supported partially by Ministry of Labor, Korea.

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