ABSTRACT
It has been stated that rheumatoid arthritis would be more frequent in silice exposed men as compared to general male population. Published studies are scarce, controversial and there are no copper mining studies. The aim was to investigate if rheumatoid arthritis prevalence is greater in male silicotic patients (admited between 1970-1975) than in non silice exposed men who entered to the mining company in the same period. The study group were silicotic men of the cohort and control group were non silice exposed men, age and enter date matched. Rheumatoid arthritis prevalence was stablished un both groups between mining company admission and december 1987. One patient developed rheumatoid arthritis in the study group and none in the control group. This finding suggests that rheumatoid arthritis prevalence in silicotic men is not significantly greater than in non silice exposed men in our medium