Coal: Response of cultured mammalian cells corresponds to the prevalence of coal workers pneumoconiosis

Abstract

The growth of mammalian cells is inhibited when leachates of coal are incorporated into the growth medium. Coal samples in these experiments are exposed to water, calf serum, or tissue culture medium under physiological conditions of temperature and pH. The coal sample from a mine whose miners had a very high incidence of coal workers pneumoconiosis, “Black Lung Disease,” inhibited the growth of cells much more than coal from another mine whose miners showed a much lower prevalence of the disease. The cellular growth inhibition was related linearly to the logarithm of the concentration of the coal leachates. Several metals in the leachate were determined in an attempt to determine the toxic substances leached from the coal.