An outdated term for coal worker’s pneumoconiosis. Anthracosis is a lung disease caused by the inhalation of large amounts of coal dust over a period of many years.
The change which takes place in the lungs and bronchial glands of coal-miners, and others, who inhale coal-dust constantly. The lungs are amazingly e?cient in coping with this problem; during a working lifetime a coal-miner may inhale around 5,000 grams of dust, but at POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION it is rare to ?nd more than about 40 grams in the lungs. The affected tissues change in colour from greyish pink to jet black, owing to loading with minute carbon particles. (See PNEUMOCONIOSIS.)
n. see coal-worker’s pneumoconiosis.
Health Encyclopedia