Assessment of cardiovascular pathology risk in miners employed at deep chrome mines

Deep mining is widely spread in Russia; therefore, preservation of labor resources employed in the sphere is a vital task. Workers who are employed at deep chrome mines are exposed to combined effects exerted by adverse occupational factors. These factors can either be common for deep mining, or they can be related to specific natural resources. Adverse risk factors cause higher risks that not only occupational, but also production-related diseases can emerge in miners. The authors performed a complex hygienic assessment of working conditions which exist in deep chrome mines. We detected that working conditions in mines could be characterized as "hazardous" and they belonged to 3-4 hazard category due to combined negative effects exerted by physical and chemical factors of the labor process. We also performed clinical and functional examination of 135 workers employed at a chrome mine. Our focus group was made up of 88 miners; the reference group included 47 workers employed at this mine who weren't exposed to adverse factors related to chrome ores mining...