Atlas of Respiratory Disease Mortality, United States: 1982-1993

This Atlas of Respiratory Disease Mortality, United States: 1982-1993 presents maps showing geographic distributions (by health service area) of mortality associated with selected respiratory conditions that together represent nearly all respiratory diseases. For categories of traditional occupational lung diseases mapped in this atlas (i.e., the pneumoconioses, including coal workers' pneumoconiosis, asbestosis, silicosis, byssinosis, and other and unspecified pneumoconioses), nearly all cases are attributable to hazardous occupational exposure. NIOSH has previously published maps showing geographic distributions (by county) of pneumoconiosis mortality in the United States [NIOSH 1996]. For other respiratory disease categories * mapped in this atlas, cases frequently occur in the absence of hazardous occupational exposure, and smaller proportions of cases--much smaller for some disease categories--are therefore considered attributable to occupational exposure. Nevertheless, for each of the disease categories mapped in this atlas, occupational causes have been documented. The author hopes that the geographic patterns of respiratory mortality presented in this atlas will stimulate and aid further study of occupational etiologies of a variety of respiratory diseases, not just those traditionally referred to as occupational lung diseases.

Atlas of Respiratory Disease Mortality, United States: 1982-1993 [PDF - 10,930 KB]