[Bronchial cancer in miners from the coal beds of the Lorraine basin]

The present study examines the mortality levels from primary bronchial cancer in the miners of Houillieres du Bassin de Lorraine, including pneumoconiotics and non-pneumoconiotics aged more than 45. 48, or 8.87% of deaths of known cause occurring between 1977 and 1981 amongst pneumoconiotics were due to a primary bronchial cancer, proved cytologically and histologically. This level did not differ from that of 7.66% seen in 796 coal miners who had worked for more than 15 years underground and unscathed by any occupational disorder, nor for the 8.57% level of men residing in the Moselle department. It is, on the other hand, significantly elevated versus the 6.34% of Frenchmen for the same age range. Tobacco consumption and industrial atmospheric pollution in the Moselle is more important than in most other French departments and should be considered when interpreting this excess mortality for bronchial cancer in this department when compared to the french national average. For the coal miners of Lorraine this study had not established a correlation between the work, the pneumoconiotic lesions and the frequency of primary bronchial cancer.