Lung cancer in a nonsmoking underground uranium miner

Environmental Health Perspectives
K B MulloyM Kornfeld

Abstract

Working in mines is associated with acute and chronic occupational disorders. Most of the uranium mining in the United States took place in the Four Corners region of the Southwest (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah) and on Native American lands. Although the uranium industry collapsed in the late 1980s, the industry employed several thousand individuals who continue to be at increased risk for developing lung cancers. We present the case of a 72-year-old Navajo male who worked for 17 years as an underground uranium miner and who developed lung cancer 22 years after leaving the industry. His total occupational exposure to radon progeny was estimated at 506 working level months. The miner was a life-long nonsmoker and had no other significant occupational or environmental exposures. On the chest X-ray taken at admission into the hospital, a right lower lung zone infiltrate was detected. The patient was treated for community-acquired pneumonia and developed respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation. Respiratory failure worsened and the patient died 19 days after presenting. On autopsy, a 2.5 cm squamous cell carcinoma of the right lung arising from the lower lobe bronchus, a right broncho-esophageal fistula, and ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Aug 10, 2007·Cutaneous and Ocular Toxicology·Zhaoyi SunGuangfeng Liu
Sep 12, 2007·Accountability in Research·Bindu Panikkar, Doug Brugge
Jun 22, 2018·International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health·Giovanni Maria FerriLuigi Vimercati
Jul 15, 2006·Environmental Toxicology·Jalal PourahmadRuhollah Ghalandari
Apr 17, 2018·Toxicological Sciences : an Official Journal of the Society of Toxicology·Katherine E ZychowskiMatthew J Campen

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