Pneumoconiosis

Pneumoconiosis is an occupational lung disease caused by the inhalation of dust. Depending on the type of dust, variants of the disease are considered.

Types include:

• Coalworker's pneumoconiosis (also known as "black lung") - coal dust
• Asbestosis - asbestos dust
• Silicosis (also known as "grinder's disease") - silica dust
• Bauxite fibrosis - bauxite dust
• Berylliosis - beryllium dust
• Siderosis - iron dust
• Byssinosis - cotton dust
• Labrador Lung (found in miners in Labrador, Canada) - mixed dust, including iron, silica and anthophyllite, a type of asbestos

Pneumoconiosis in combination with multiple pulmonary rheumatoid nodules in rheumatoid arthritis patients is known as Caplan's syndrome.^[1]

Additional recommended knowledge

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Essential Laboratory Skills Guide

See also

• Chalicosis
• Philip D'Arcy Hart

Other Work-related Lung Diseases

• Popcorn workers lung disease - Diacetyl emissions and airborne dust from butter flavorings used in microwave popcorn production

Popular culture references

• A longer, factitious term is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
• In the classic British film Brief Encounter (1945), derived from a Noel Coward play, housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) and physician Alec (Trevor Howard) begin an affair. She is desperately mesmerized in a train station lounge by his evocation of his passion for pneumoconioses:

Laura: “You were saying about the coal mines…”

Alec: “Oh yes, the inhalation of coal dust…That’s one specific form of the disease. It’s called anthracosis.”

Laura [Tenderly]: “What are the others?”

Alec: “Chalicosis. That comes from metal dust. Steel works, you know…”

Laura [Breathlessly]: “Yes, of course… Steel works…”

Alec: “And silicosis… That’s stone dust… Gold mines…”

Laura [Almost swooning]: “I see…”

Bell rings

Laura: “There’s your train.”

Alec: “Yes.”

Laura: “You mustn’t miss it.”

Alec: “No.”

• In the film Zoolander, starring Ben Stiller, he claims to have "The Black Lung" after working in a coal mine for one day.

References

1. ^ Andreoli, Thomas, ed. CECIL Essentials of Medicine. Saunders: Pennsylvania, 2004. p. 737.