At the American Thoracic Society meeting, Dr Kirsten Almberg discussed the rise of black lung, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in US coal miners. Here, she reiterates the results of two studies assessing mortality in US-based coal miners and the further work that needs to be done to better understand the health risks to US coal miners and develop strategies to reduce health risk.
Questions
1. Please describe what health risks exist for US coal miners? (0:05)
2. You recently published two adjacent studies assessing mortality in US-based coal miners – please outline how you investigated this? (1:18)
3. What did these studies demonstrate in terms of changes over time in disease mortality from black lung, lung cancer and COPD? (3:30)
4. Which factors underline or are proposed to underline the increased mortality from these diseases? (5:38)
5. What further work needs to be done to better understand the health risks to US coal miners and develop strategies to reduce health risk? (7:26)
