Miners, lung cancer incidence

In the mid-1960s, several other MSS toxicants had their brief moment of infamy, for example, °Po, NO2, CO, Ni. In their comparison of lung cancer incidence in uranium miners exposed to °Po vs. cigarette smokers exposed to MSS opo, Harley et al. (75) questioned the significance of °Po in tobacco-induced lung cancer. Concern over NO2 diminished with the demonstration that over 95% of the NO, in MSS was... 

Welders are typically exposed to a complex mixture of dust and fume of metallic oxides, as well as irritant gases, and are subject to mixed-dust pneumoconiosis with possible loss of pulmonary function this should not be confused with benign pneumoconiosis caused by iron oxide. Although an increased incidence of lung cancer has been observed among hematite miners exposed to iron oxide, presumably owing to concomitant radon gas exposure, there is no evidence that iron oxide alone is carcinogenic to man or animals. ... 

Asbestos fibers have been linked to the high incidence of lung cancer and mesothelioma (an otherwise rare pleural cancer) in asbestos workers and are considered to pose a threat to the population at large. Some 5000 deaths per annum in the United States have been attributed to mineral fiber contacts. There is now evidence that the true asbestoses such as amosite or crocidolite have a much higher association with mesothelioma than does the chrysotile used in most commercial asbestos, but controversy continues regarding the health hazards of asbestoses. The problem is evidently a general one with dust particles and fibers of any kind that are small enough... 

The first surveys of radon in US (Colorado) uranium mines were made in 1952, when the raised incidence of lung cancer in miners first became apparent (United States Public Health Service, 1957). The level was highly variable, with medians for each mine varying from 7 x 102 to 3 x 105 Bq m-3. The median of the medians was 4 x 104 Bq m-3,1000 times higher than the median concentration in houses (Table 1.4). Subsequently, ventilation was improved and other measures were taken, for example disused parts of mines were sealed off. The median of medians was reduced to 1 x 104 Bq m-3 in 1956 and to 4 x 103 Bq m-3 in 1966. In a survey of six mines in New Mexico in 1970, George Hinchliffe (1972) found a median radon concentration of 7 x 103 Bq m-3. 

---