Cases of pneumoconiosis in workers working on Teflon-coating.

Since 'Tefal' made the world's first Teflon-coated frying pan, these frying pans have been used worldwide. Currently, South Korea also produces a lot of Teflon-coated frying pans. Recently, pneumoconiosis has been diagnosed in workers who have worked on Teflon coating for a long time in frying pan manufacturing plants in Korea. Therefore, we would like to report on 5 pneumoconiosis cases in Korea. All 5 of them worked at 4 Teflon-coated frying pan manufacturing plants. Case 1 was diagnosed with pneumoconiosis at the age of 42 after working for 8 years and 2 months, case 2 was 41 years old & 20 years(working duration), case 3 was 61 years old & 12 years, case 4 was 58 years old & 16 years, case 5 was 49 years old & 22 years and 9 months. The pneumoconiosis diagnosed at the hospital was reconfirmed at Pneumoconiosis Committee in Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service(KCOMWEL), case 1 through 5 respectively, type of 0/0(multiple small nodules in CT), 1/0, 2/2, 4A and 4A. As a result of FE-SEM analysis by obtaining the lung tissue slides(unstained) of case 1, F(fluorine)-Na particles were mainly found. The researchers measured the personal concentration of dust in the air at the factory where case 2 worked, the total dust was 1.34 ㎎/㎥ and respiratory dust was 0.10 ㎎/㎥ and no other mineral dust that could cause pneumoniosis was detected. All the factories where 5 cases worked used coating solutions containing 10-40% PTFE(Polytetrafluoroethylene). The exact causes of the pnuemoconiosis in these cases are unknown, but considering that there is no other cause that can cause pneumoconiosis and a large amount of PTFE was contained in the coating solution, PTFE is considered to be a strong candiate for pneumoconiosis.