Bronchitis and emphysema in coalworkers’ pneumoconiosis

Is bronchitis and emphysema more prevalent among miners and exminers? If so, how is it related to the x-ray changes of pneumoconiosis and to industrial exposure? This is a question often asked but to which no very satisfactory answer has yet been given. I prefer the term “coalworkers’ pneumoconiosis” to “silicosis”, because my contribution is the result of the studies among coalworkers in Great Britain in whom silicosis is rather rare. Dr. G. Nagelschmidt has already commented on this, and produced additional evidence that the condition we most commonly see in coalminers is the result of the accumulation of large quantities of coal in the lung, and that cases with histological evidence of silicosis are rare.