Silicosis in women. Experience from the Swedish Pneumoconiosis Register

Among approximately 4,700 cases reported to the Swedish Pneumoconiosis Registry in the period 1931 through 1980 were 53 cases of women with silicosis, 42 of whom had worked in the ceramic industry. In a follow-up investigation, the women who had contracted silicosis in pottery-forming shops were compared with silicotic men whose occupational history was similar. Age, stage of silicosis at the time of diagnosis, and mortality rates, were by and large the same for men and women, as was tuberculosis incidence. The prediagnosis duration of exposure to dust, however, was significantly shorter for the women, (20.5 +/- 8.6 yr) than for the men (28 +/- 10.1 yr) (p less than .001), and roentgenographic evidence of progression of the lesions was more pronounced in the women. No conclusive explanation of this difference was demonstrable.