Pneumoconiosis
From Ask Dr Wiki
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]
Contents |
See also
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
- ↑ Andreoli, Thomas, ed. CECIL Essentials of Medicine. Saunders: Pennsylvania, 2004. p. 737.
External links
- NIOSH Safety and Health Topic: Pneumoconioses
- [1]
- [2]
Template:Respiratory pathology
- [3]
- [4]
- [5]
