Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences Vol. 5(10) pp. 218-221, November 2014 DOI: http:/dx.doi.org/10.14303/jmms.2014.211 Available online http://www.interesjournals.org/JMMS Copyright © 2014 International Research Journals Full Length Research Paper Baseline study of sputum samples of individuals around the old Enugu coal mine Jibiri N.N. 1 and *Amakom C.M 2 1 Department of Physics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. *2 Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria. *Corresponding Author’s E-mail: camakom@gmail.com Abstract Since lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related deaths worldwide, early detection of the disease will help in curbing the disease at the developmental stage. Therefore, sputum cytologic analysis was carried out on some residents of the Iva-valley area of Enugu, a coal mine settlement. Sputum samples were collected from 34 individuals who volunteered to participate in the study and proper cytologic analysis was carried out. Only five participants who have once worked in the coal mine showed the sign of slight atypia while the other 29 individuals showed no sign of any form of atypia. Nevertheless, a follow up study was recommended for those who showed a sign of slight atypia. Keywords: Sputum cytology, Iva-valley coal mine, atypia, and lung cancer. INTRODUCTION The Enugu urban owes its status to the presence of coal mine located within the Iva-valley region in the outskirt of the city. The mine has been non operational since the late nineties but the effects of the mining operation is still very conspicuous within the environment. Most of the workers who once participated in the mining operations have settled within the valley which has now become their home. Coal miners are subject to a number of lung diseases and disorders arising from their exposure to coal mine dust. These include pneumoconiosis, chronic bronchitis and obstructive lung disease. The occurrence and severity of disease depends on the intensity and duration of dust exposure. The specific composition of the coal mine dust also has a bearing on some health outcomes and many a times the development of lung cancer as result of radon inhalation in enclosed spaces are observed. Many years ago, Saccomanno et al. (1974), defined the cytological changes that occur during the development of lung cancer. These changes were mainly documented in squamous metaplastic cells, and represent cellular aspects of toxic damage of respiratory tract epithelium as a result of—for example, smoking or radon gas. The transition from mild, moderate, and marked atypia, to carcinoma in situ and then to invasive carcinoma has been described. The transition time varies considerably between patients, but on average the transition from mild to marked atypia takes five years, and the change from moderate atypia to carcinoma in situ and from marked atypia to invasive carcinoma takes an additional five years. Interestingly, patients developing squamous cell and small cell carcinoma show the same cytological changes. The point of development into one of the different types of carcinoma is unclear, but the transition time seems to be slightly shorter for patients developing small cell lung cancer Saccomanno et al. (1974). Cytologic atypia of exfoliated cells has been shown to be associated with both prevalent and incident lung cancer (petty et al., 2002). In the Johns Hopkins Lung Project, 14% of the participants with sputum cytologic atypia graded as moderate or worse later progressed to lung cancer as compared with only 3% of those without atypia (Frost et al., 1984). Because the inhalation of radon gas in enclosed