black lung

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n.
Pneumoconiosis caused by the long-term inhalation of coal dust. Also called anthracosis.


A chronic disease of the lungs caused by inhaling coal dust over long periods. Common among coal miners, black lung is an examle of an occupational disease.


n.

A form of pneumoconiosis common in coal miners, characterized by the deposit of carbon particles in the lungs.

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categories related to 'black lung'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to black lung, see:
  • Diseases and Infestations - black lung: slow-developing respiratory disease due to regular inhalation of coal dust or asbestos; miner's lung; pneumoconiosis
  • Mining - black lung: disease caused by inhalation of coal dust


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Pneumoconiosis
Classification and external resources

Micrograph of asbestosis (with ferruginous bodies), a type of pneumoconiosis. H&E stain.
ICD-10 J60-J65
ICD-9 500-505
DiseasesDB 31746
MeSH D011009

Pneumoconiosis is an occupational lung disease and a restrictive lung disease caused by the inhalation of dust, often in mines.

Contents

Types

Depending upon the type of dust, the disease is given different names:


Diagnosis

Positive indications on patient assessment:

  • Shortness of breath
  • Chest X-ray may show a characteristic patchy, subpleural, bibasilar interstitial infiltrates or small cystic radiolucencies called honeycombing

Pneumoconiosis in combination with multiple pulmonary rheumatoid nodules in rheumatoid arthritis patients is known as Caplan's syndrome.[1]

Other work-related lung diseases

Popular culture references

  • In the classic British film Brief Encounter (1945), derived from a Noël Coward play, housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) and physician Alec (Trevor Howard) begin an affair. She is desperately mesmerized in a train station lounge by his evocation of his passion for pneumoconioses:
Laura: “You were saying about the coal mines…”
Alec: “Oh yes, the inhalation of coal dust…That’s one specific form of the disease. It’s called anthracosis.”
Laura [Tenderly]: “What are the others?”
Alec: “Chalicosis. That comes from metal dust. Steel works, you know…”
Laura [Breathlessly]: “Yes, of course… Steel works…”
Alec: “And silicosis… That’s stone dust… Gold mines…”
Laura [Almost swooning]: “I see…”
Bell rings
Laura: “There’s your train.”
Alec: “Yes.”
Laura: “You mustn’t miss it.”
Alec: “No.”
  • In the 1995 British film Brassed Off, the band leader (Pete Postlethwaite) in a small coal-mining town is hospitalized with pneumoconiosis.
  • 2006 documentary film by Shane Roberts. Features interviews with miners suffering from the disease and footage shot inside the mine
  • 1000 Ways to Die featured an incident where two kitchen workers succumb to Pneumoconiosis from playing in cocoa powder.
  • In the widely acclaimed Puzzle/Shooter game Portal 2, former CEO and founder of Aperture Science Laboratories, Cave Johnson, purportedly contracted and died of Lunar Pneumoconiosis after prolonged exposure to the moon rocks he was utilizing in teleportation technology research.

See also

References

  1. ^ Andreoli, Thomas, ed. CECIL Essentials of Medicine. Saunders: Pennsylvania, 2004. p. 737.

A Cochrane and M Blythe (1989) "One Man's Medicine, an autobiography of Professor Archie Cochrane". London, BMJ Books. (Paperback edition, 2009, by Cardiff University Publications (available from the Cochrane Library, Cardiff).

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