RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF PNEUMOCONIOSIS IN CHAMPAGNE-ARDENNE

This study was carried out in two departments of Champagne-Ardenne. Th e aim was to assess the level of retrieval in patient population suffe ring from pneumoconiosis who were hospitalised with this disorder, com pared to another population who had contracted the same disease in the working environment and were known to the local social security benef it office in the North East (CRAMNE). A list of 77 names of hospitalis ed patients had been obtained following requests for mineralogical ana lysis addressed to a specialised national laboratory. A second list of 59 names of patients who were receiving compensation for pneumoconios is was provided by CRAMNE. Five subjects were common to both populatio ns. The discordance between the two was partly explained by the non-re cognition of the system of compensation for indemnifiable occupational disease. The recruitment of hospitalised patients leads to a bias whi ch influences the distribution of pneumoconiosis patients. Subjects pr esenting with the most consistent abnormalities in pulmonary function did not all figure amongst the notified cases.