진폐발생의 예방의학적 조사 = Epidemiological Study on the Incidence of Pneumoconiosis

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

(1) Dust concentrations in working places of Korean coal mines exceed 5 to 70 times as high as the recommended threshold limit value of dust.
(2) It is estimated that 1,300 to 2,300 pneumoconiosis cases may exist among Korean coal miners based on the data obtained from the study.
(3) Prevalence rate of pneumoconiosis is the highest among workers who have over 10 years of working experience in dusty coal mines. Despite a fact that pneumoconiosis case is seldom found nowadays in the developed countries among workers whose working experience is less then 5 years, a quite number of cases are found among workers with less than 5years of working experience. Moreover, it is evident from the fact that pneumoconiosis case even in the third stage are found among workers with a few years of working experience, pneumoconiosis can be occurred within a short period of time when workers are exposed to high concentration of dust.
(4) It is anticipated that pneumoconiosis cases will occur unless the working environment is improved, when coal miners are getting old, as the prevalence rate shows the highest among a group of workers aged 35 to 50 years.
(5) The commonest complication with pneumoconiosis is pulmonary tuberculosis showing the rate of 25.7%, that is, nearly 8 times as high as that of pulmonary tuberculosis among Korean general population. Besides, pulmonary emphysema, bronchiectasis, cor pulmonale, pleurisy and lung abscess can be seen as complications of pneumoconiosis.