Relations between occupational exposure to coal mine dusts, erythrocyte catalase and Cu++/Zn++ superoxide dismutase activities, and the severity of coal workers' pneumoconiosis.

Abstract

These results are in good agreement with the hypothesis that production of reactive oxygen species may be an important event in the exposure to coal mine dusts and the severity of CWP. Erythrocyte catalase and Cu++/Zn++ SOD activities are more closely related to recent exposure to high dust concentrations than to cumulative exposure, and could be considered as biological markers of exposure rather than as markers of early adverse biological effect.