Pulmonary ventilatory function in relation to dust exposure, simple pneumoconiosis and chronic bronchitis in British coalminers

An association between exposure to airborne dust and loss of ventilatory capacity is demonstrated. This finding is statistically very highly significant (P 0.1%).The loss of function occurs both in men with pneumoconiosis and in those without.Age, height, weight, smoking habits and dust exposure are each shown to contribute to the determination of the level of FEV1sec. No synergistic effect between dust and smoking was found. The loss of FEV1 associated with each category of simple pneumoconiosis is small. The loss of FEV1 associated with chronic bronchitis is larger and increases with the severity of the grade of bronchitis. “”