In coal mines, main occupational hazard is coal-mine dust, which can cause health problem including coalworkers' pneumoconiosis and lung cancer. Some heat shock proteins (Hsps) have been reported as an acute response to a wide variety of stressful stimuli. Whether Hsps protect against chronic environmental coal-mine dust over years is unknown. It is also interesting to know that whether the expression of Hsp27 and Hsp70 proteins as a marker for exposure is associated risk of lung cancer among coalminers. We investigated the association between levels of Hsp27 and Hsp70 expression in lymphocytes and plasma and levels of coal-mine dust exposure in workplace or risk of lung cancer in 42 cancer-free non-coalminers, 99 cancer-free coalminers and 51 coalminers with lung cancer in Taiyuan city in China. The results showed that plasma Hsp27 levels were increased in coalminers compared to non-coalminers (P<0.01). Except high cumulative coal-mine dust exposure (OR=13.62, 95%CI=6.05-30.69) and amount of smoking higher than 24 pack-year (OR=2.72, 95% CI=1.37-5.42), the elevated levels of plasma Hsp70 (OR=13.00, 95% CI=5.14-32.91) and plasma Hsp27 (OR=2.97, 95% CI=1.40-6.32) and decreased expression of Hsp70 in lymphocytes (OR=2.36, 95% CI=1.05-5.31) were associated with increased risk of lung cancer. These findings suggest that plasma Hsp27 may be a potential marker for coal-mine dust exposure. And the expression of Hsp27 and Hsp70 levels in plasma and lymphocytes may be used as biomarkers for lung cancer induced by occupational coal-mine dust exposure.