Eighteen cases of silicosis among workers in the stone fabrication industry are reported in California, Colorado, Texas, and Washington.

Since 2001, more than 2.7 million U.S. military personnel have been deployed in support of operations in Southwest Asia and Afghanistan. Land-based personnel experienced elevated exposures to particulate matter and other inhalational exposures from multiple sources, including desert dust, burn pit combustion, and other industrial, mobile, or military sources. A workshop conducted at the 2018 American Thoracic Society International Conference had the goals of: 1) identifying key studies assessing postdeployment respiratory health, 2) describing emerging research, and 3) highlighting knowledge gaps. The workshop reviewed epidemiologic studies that demonstrated more frequent encounters for respiratory symptoms postdeployment compared with nondeployers and for airway disease, predominantly asthma, as well as case series describing postdeployment dyspnea, asthma, and a range of other respiratory tract findings. On the basis of particulate matter effects in other populations, it also is possible that deployers experienced reductions in pulmonary function as a result of such exposure. The workshop also gave particular attention to constrictive bronchiolitis, which has been reported in lung biopsies of selected deployers. Workshop participants had heterogeneous views regarding the definition and frequency of constrictive bronchiolitis and other small airway pathologic findings in deployed populations. The workshop concluded that the relationship of airway disease, including constrictive bronchiolitis, to exposures experienced during deployment remains to be better defined. Future clinical and epidemiologic research efforts should address better characterization of deployment exposures; carry out longitudinal assessment of potentially related adverse health conditions, including lung function and other physiologic changes; and use rigorous histologic, exposure, and clinical characterization of patients with respiratory tract abnormalities.

Rationale: The reasons for resurgent coal workers’ pneumoconiosis and its most severe forms, rapidly progressive pneumoconiosis and progressive massive fibrosis (PMF), in the United States are not yet fully understood. Objectives: To compare the pathologic and mineralogic features of contemporary coal miners with severe pneumoconiosis with those of their historical counterparts. Methods: Lung pathology specimens from 85 coal miners with PMF were included for evaluation and analysis. We compared the proportion of cases with pathologic and mineralogic findings in miners born between 1910 and 1930 (historical) with those in miners born in or after 1930 (contemporary). Results: We found a significantly higher proportion of silica-type PMF (57% vs. 18%; P < 0.001) among contemporary miners compared with their historical counterparts. Mineral dust alveolar proteinosis was also more common in contemporary miners compared with their historical counterparts (70% vs. 37%; P < 0.01). In situ mineralogic analysis showed that the percentage (26.1% vs. 17.8%; P < 0.01) and concentration (47.3 × 108 vs. 25.8 × 108 particles/cm3; P = 0.036) of silica particles were significantly greater in specimens from contemporary miners compared with their historical counterparts. The concentration of silica particles was significantly greater when silica-type PMF, mineral dust alveolar proteinosis, silicotic nodules, or immature silicotic nodules were present (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Exposure to respirable crystalline silica appears causal in the unexpected surge of severe disease in contemporary miners. Our findings underscore the importance of controlling workplace silica exposure to prevent the disabling and untreatable adverse health effects afflicting U.S. coal miners.

Objective: To review inhalational exposures and respiratory disease risks in US military personnel deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and to develop consensus recommendations for medical screening and diagnostic referral. Methods: A Working Group of physicians and exposure scientists from academia and from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs was convened in February 2010. Results: Despite uncertainty about the number of people affected and risk factors for adverse pulmonary outcomes in this occupational setting, the Working Group recommended: (1) standardized approaches to pre- and postdeployment medical surveillance; (2) criteria for medical referral and diagnosis; and (3) case definitions for major deployment-related lung diseases. Conclusions: There is a need for targeted, practical medical surveillance for lung diseases and for a standardized diagnostic approach for all symptomatic deployed personnel.

The link between military deployment to Southwest Asia and Afghanistan, and the risk for lung disease, including bronchiolitis, is increasingly well-recognized. However, histopathologic features that distinguish deployment-related lung diseases from other diseases affecting the small airways and airspaces are uncertain. A computer-based scoring system was developed to characterize surgical lung biopsy findings in 65 soldiers with persistent respiratory symptoms following military deployment ("deployers"). Deployer lung biopsies were compared to those from 8 patients with chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (cHP), 10 with smoking-related respiratory bronchiolitis, 11 with autoimmune or post-transplant obliterative bronchiolitis, and 10 normal donor lungs. Upper, middle, and lower lobe-specific findings in deployer samples were analyzed to inform optimum biopsy location choice for future patients. Surgical lung biopsies from symptomatic deployed military service members were distinguished by a combination of small airways abnormalities including smooth muscle hypertrophy (SMH), peribronchiolar metaplasia (PBM), and lymphocytic inflammation, often with constrictive/obliterative (C/O) and/or respiratory bronchiolitis (43.1%), granulomatous inflammation (38.5%), and moderate/severe emphysema (46.2%, mainly in nonsmokers). Lymphocytic pleural inflammation was common (89.2%), and vascular abnormalities occurred in nearly one-third. Histopathologic features in deployers were most strongly overlapping with cases of cHP, both showing granulomatous inflammation, PBM, and emphysema. SMH along with C/O and respiratory bronchiolitis were common in deployers but not in cHP cases. In deployers, there were significantly higher odds of small airways injury in the lower lobe compared with upper lobe samples.