• Project number: F 1931
• Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• Status: Completed Project

Description:

Since 1995 chronic bronchitis and emphysema can be accepted as an occupational disease in coal miners. On the other hand lots of work places outside coal mining are characterized by relevant quartz dust exposure. In consequence risk assessment is needed for scientific based occupational exposure limits. Risk assessment will be based on a retrospective cohort-study. The cohort includes male Wismut-employees born 1955 to 1958. Exposure assessment on total, fine and quartz dust will be conducted by a dust-job exposure matrix based on job history. Outcome-variable of main interest is a decline of lung function measured by vital capacity (VC) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV-1).