Respiratory diseases and its relation to working in Emarat underground mine

Background: Workers of mines may be afflicted to pulmonary diseases by inhalation of abundant dusts produced by mine-caving. Objective: To investigate respiratory symptoms and pulmonary pathological lesions in workers of Emarat underground mine. Methods: Through an analytic study, all workers of Emarat underground mine (34 workers) and a control group (67 workers) were studied in 1997. The data was gathered by a questionnaire which was accomplished by face to face interview and chest radiography which was investigated by a pulmonary specialist. The data was statistically analyzed by t-test, Fisher exact test and chi-square test. Findings: The rate of respiratory symptoms including coughing, sputum, dyspnea and tightness in underground workers were 47.1%, 47.1%, 41.2% and 29.4% and in the control group were 6%, 6%, 6% and 1.5% respectively. The statistical analysis of chi-square and fisher tests indicated that there was a significant difference in the frequency of respiratory symptoms among two groups. The rate of pulmonary pathological lesion in underground miners and control group were 27.3% and 4.1% respectively. The fisher test indicated a significant difference in the pulmonary pathological lesions of two groups (P=0.005). Conclusion: It can be concluded that the symptoms and lesions of respiratory tract are probably caused by dust.