Industrial Bronchitis

Our plain-English summary of Industrial Bronchitis, by N.L. Lapp (1975).

The study

• Author: N.L. Lapp
• Published: Occupational Lung Diseases (W.K.C. Morgan And A. Seaton, Editors), Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, Pp. 265-273 (1975)
• Type of article: Book excerpt
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library, J-M no. 002829.

In plain English

This textbook chapter was a review of evidence on 'industrial' or 'occupational' bronchitis, meaning persistent cough and phlegm linked to work exposures. It reported no new data of its own. It described a National Coal Board study of 4122 coal face workers in which bronchitis was significantly associated with increasing dust exposure in men aged twenty-five to thirty-four and thirty-five to forty-four. In that study, smoking was also associated with more bronchitis in all age groups. Other studies it reviewed involved gold miners, coke workers, cotton and hemp workers, and foundry workers exposed to silica, with mixed results. On asbestos, the chapter said in a single sentence that studies by McDonald et al. among asbestos workers found more bronchitis among those with greater dust exposures. Its reference list identifies these as chrysotile asbestos mine and mill workers of Quebec. The chapter also covered symptoms, pathology, lung function and treatment. The author concluded that it seemed well established that in at least some dusty occupations, work exposure plays a role in causing persistent cough and phlegm. The author also noted that the question for industries other than coal mining had not been definitely answered.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: review (textbook chapter summarizing published studies); no original data
• Who was studied: No study population of its own. The chapter reviewed published studies of coal miners (UK, US, Germany, Belgium and elsewhere), gold miners in South Africa, coke workers, asbestos workers, cotton and hemp workers, and foundry workers in Detroit.
• Exposure: Occupational dusts and fumes, mainly coal mine dust. The others were gold mine dust, coke oven heat, dusts and fumes, asbestos, cotton and hemp dust, and foundry silica. The asbestos study is described in the text only as among 'asbestos workers'; its reference title names chrysotile asbestos mine and mill workers of Quebec.
• Main results:
  • Reviewed finding (National Coal Board, UK): among 4122 coal face workers with lifetime dust exposures calculated from measurements, bronchitis prevalence was significantly associated with increasing dust exposure in the twenty-five to thirty-four and thirty-five to forty-four year age groups. In all age groups, smoking and pneumoconiosis were associated with more bronchitis.
  • Reviewed finding (McDonald et al.): among asbestos workers, those with greater dust exposures had an increased prevalence of bronchitis.
  • Reviewed finding (Sluis-Cremer and associates): bronchitis occurred significantly more often in cigarette-smoking gold miners than in cigarette-smoking nonminers in South Africa, but this was not true for nonsmokers.
  • Reviewed finding (Brinkman and Coates): in a Detroit foundry, little effect of silica exposure on bronchitis prevalence was detected in men aged forty to sixty-four.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that it seemed well established that, at least in some dusty occupations, occupational exposure plays a role in causing persistent cough and phlegm, justifying the terms 'occupational' or 'industrial' bronchitis.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author stated that whether chronic bronchitis results from occupational exposure in industries other than coal mining had not been definitely answered.
  • The author noted that results in coal miners have not always been consistent and that regional variations appear to occur.
  • The author stated that the impression that removal from dust exposure reduces symptoms is difficult to document from published studies.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Chrysotile, Pathology.

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