This study aims to conduct a systematic review of RCMD exposure and investigate the impacts of mining parameters, including mine size, coal rank, geographical location, and coal seam thickness on the prevalence of CWP. The study concluded that the available data are too limited to draw any final conclusions concerning a population cancer risk from coal mining.Ĭurrently, there is no comprehensive systematic review on RCMD health effects in the U.S. ( 2013) conducted a systematic review based on 34 selected articles to examine the links between coal dust exposure and cancer incidence and mortality. The study found that the evidence is limited for causal links between exposure to pure coal powder and lung diseases and suggested conducting further analysis of the data related to miners exposed to either pure coal or coal with very low minerals content. In their study, a total of 2945 papers were collected, and nine papers were selected for evaluation of the topic by excluding the nonrelated articles. ( 2017) conducted a systematic review of the coal dust exposure to investigate whether the prevalence of occupational lung diseases is pure coal or coal mixed with silica minerals. Therefore, the rejection or confirmation of a hypothesis is with fewer biases compared to other types of review (Shekarian and Mellat-Parast 2020).Ī few researchers investigated some aspects of occupational exposure to RCMD. In conducting a systematic review, all available evidence, whether they support or refute a hypothesis, are included. Systematic review is a technically robust methodology for summarizing and testing the consistency of the primary studies in a given topic. Systematic review is a type of review that uses explicit and systematic methods to collect reliable data from all available databases to reduce random and systematic errors of bias thus, providing reliable findings to draw conclusions, and make decisions (Torgerson 2003). However, there has been no comprehensive systematic review investigating the role of all potential contributing factors. 2010), and mine size (e.g., Blackley et al. 2020), coal rank (e.g., Laney and Attfield 2010 Pollock et al. 2019), quartz exposure (e.g., Sarver et al. 2014), thin-seam mining (e.g., Antao et al. coal miners, including geological factors (e.g., Laney et al. Several potential reasons have been hypothesized for the increased rate of CWP among U.S.
In the United States, an unexpected and severe increase in coal miners’ lung diseases in the late 1990s prompted researchers to investigate the causes of the disease resurgence. Cumulative inhalation of RCMD can lead to severe lung diseases, including coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (CWP), silicosis, mixed dust pneumoconiosis, dust-related diffuse fibrosis (DDF), and progressive massive fibrosis (PMF) (Cullinan et al. It is estimated that 40%–95% of respirable dust in the underground coal mine is pure coal, and the rest contains particles originated from cutting roof and floor rock, diesel exhaust from equipment, and rock dusting (Walton et al. Respirable coal mine dust (RCMD) is a mixture of more than 50 elements and their oxides. However, the evidence for root causes is limited owing to the methodological constraints of the studies therefore, further detailed studies are needed. The review revealed that factors including geographic location, mine size, mining operation type, coal-seam thickness, coal rank, changes in mining practices, technology advancement, and engineering dust control practices are contributing to the recent resurgence of CWP among coal workers. Then, 18 papers were considered for data selection and full-text assessment. The total number of 148 and 208 papers were excluded from the database in the process of screening and eligibility, respectively. The systematic review yielded a total of 401 papers, which were added to the database. A systematic review using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) method was conducted to investigate the health effects of RCMD exposure and identify the factors that may contribute to the recent resurgence of CWP cases. This study aims to investigate the effects of various mining parameters on the prevalence of CWP in coal mines. To date, there has been no comprehensive systematic review to assess all contributing factors to the resurgence of CWP cases. However, an unexpected increase in the number of CWP cases was reported in the late 1990s. Statistics from the number of reported cases showed a significant decrease in the progression of respiratory diseases in the 1990s. Cumulative inhalation of respirable coal mine dust (RCMD) can lead to severe lung diseases, including coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (CWP), silicosis, mixed dust pneumoconiosis, dust-related diffuse fibrosis (DDF), and progressive massive fibrosis (PMF).
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