Mortality and morbidity in populations in the vicinity of coal mining: a systematic review

Javier Cortes-Ramirez,Peter D Sly,Suchithra Naish,Paul Jagals

doi:10.1186/s12889-018-5505-7

Abstract

BackgroundEvidence of the association of coal mining with health outcomes such as increased mortality and morbidity in the general population has been provided by epidemiological studies in the last 25 years. Given the diverse sources of data included to investigate different health outcomes in the exposed populations, the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) can be used as a single classification standard to compare the findings of studies conducted in different socioeconomic and geographic contexts. The ICD classifies diagnoses of diseases and other disorders as codes organized by categories and chapters.ObjectivesIdentify the ICD codes found in studies of morbidity and/or mortality in populations resident or in proximity of coal mining and assess the methods of these studies conducting a systematic review.MethodsA systematic database search of PubMed, EMBASE and Scopus following the PRISMA protocol was conducted to assess epidemiological studies from 1990 to 2016. The health outcomes were mapped to ICD codes and classified by studies of morbidity and/or mortality, and the categories and chapters of the ICD.ResultsTwenty-eight epidemiological studies with ecological design from the USA, Europe and China were included. The exposed populations had increased risk of mortality and/or morbidity by 78 ICD diagnosis categories and 9 groups of ICD categories in 10 chapters of the ICD: Neoplasms, diseases of the circulatory, respiratory and genitourinary systems, metabolic diseases, diseases of the eye and the skin, perinatal conditions, congenital and chromosomal abnormalities, and external causes of morbidity. Exposed populations had non-increased risk of 9 ICD diagnosis categories of diseases of the genitourinary system, and prostate cancer.ConclusionsThere is consistent evidence of the association of coal mining with a wide spectrum of diseases in populations resident or in proximity of the mining activities. The methods of the studies included in this review can be integrated with individual-level and longitudinal studies to provide further evidence of the exposure pathways linked to increased risk in the exposed populations.

Highlights

Evidence of the association of coal mining with health outcomes such as increased mortality and morbidity in the general population has been provided by epidemiological studies in the last 25 years
The health outcomes were mapped to International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes and classified by studies of morbidity and/or mortality, and the categories and chapters of the ICD
This paper presents a systematic review of studies of morbidity and/or mortality in populations resident or in proximity of coal mining and the diagnoses identified according to the ICD

Summary

Introduction

Evidence of the association of coal mining with health outcomes such as increased mortality and morbidity in the general population has been provided by epidemiological studies in the last 25 years. In the last three decades epidemiological studies have increasingly investigated the impacts of coal mining on the general populations in proximity to coal mining [10] These studies have found reduced health-related quality of life [11], increased perceptions of detrimental health conditions [12], and higher frequency of medical. Other studies have identified increased rates of dental disorders in coal mining regions of the USA [21] and Europe [22], and studies in mining regions of developing countries reported higher prevalence of parasitic diseases in communities residing nearby coal mining [23, 24]. The diverse health outcomes included in these studies show that the health impacts of coal mining on general population have been assessed using different approaches and sources of data

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