Prevalence of pneumonoconiosis among coal and heavy metal miners in Zimbabwe.
No prevalence data on pneumonoconiosis among Zimbabwe's 30,000 miners have been available. Passage of a 1984 law requiring examination of all miners has provided a data base to assess this, but the records had not been previously evaluated or stored in a manner to facilitate this. In 1988 we developed a strategy to utilize the existing records to estimate cross-sectional rates rapidly. In this report, we describe the approach and demonstrate high rates of simple pneumonoconiosis among long-term workers in the coal, nickel, copper, and gold mines. These data, though limited, provide a rationale for more detailed investigations in these workforces and an impetus to establish an ongoing surveillance plan for the nation's miners.
Cullen
M R
MR
Yale New Haven Occupational Medicine Program, Yale University School of Medicine, Connecticut 06510.
Baloyi
R S
RS
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003032:Coal Mining; D003300:Copper; D006046:Gold; D006801:Humans; D008670:Metals; D008906:Mining; D009532:Nickel; D011009:Pneumoconiosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011859:Radiography; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015030:Zimbabwe / Q000453:epidemiology
D008670:Metals; D006046:Gold; D003300:Copper; D009532:Nickel