Black Lung

Of course I have been thinking of coal mines. Several incidents have occurred in China in the last few weeks, including in the province of Henan, the Shanxi’s Wangjialing coal mine, a coal mine in the north-western region of Xinjiang and lastly a fire in Shaanxi province’s Quanzigou mine.
In the United States, rescue workers are still hoping to save men from a West Virginia collapse. The US incident is said to be the worst stateside disaster in 25 years.

I do hope that the same excoriation faces the American company as is customary towards China, which has the worst coal mine disaster record in the world.

Coal miners risk their lives every time they go into a mine. The risk of explosion s high, especially as we are learning, due to methane gas. Coal mining is also a physically demanding job and my expectation is that there would be high incidence of arthritis and back injury in this population. Coal miners spend much of their work time walking hunched over because they cannot stand erect in the low altitude.

And then there is the consequence of breathing the air that contains coal dust, day after day, on the "jobsite". The occupational lung hazard for coal miners is a disease or condition called pneumoconiosis - it has two categories, simple and complicated. We often refer to it as black lung disease because the lungs of coal miners are not usually the healthy pink shade of people who do not work in coal mines and who do not smoke.

Though a person with either form of black lung may also be diagnosed with emphysema or chronic bronchitis as the disease progresses, they are separate illnesses. The coal dust irritates the lungs, causes inflammation and scarring. Some cases involve lung nodules that can create blockages - this would be the complicated coal worker's pneumoconiosis - also called progressive massive fibrosis or PMF. The incidence of black lung and its lethality has decreased over the years. There is much to learn about the disease and compensation from the Black Lung Disability Trust. It is not easy to receive compensation from that fund at this time, but billions were paid out after coal mining safety legislation was passed in 1969.

One cannot be diagnosed with coal worker's pneumoconiosis if they have not inhaled coal dust. Smoking does not increase the risk of CWP (SimpleCWP or ComplicatedCWP) - but does increase the risk of emphysema and chronic bronchitis. There is no cure for any of these and simple CWP can progress to the more complicated and disabling type. The only way to prevent this pneumoconiosis is to never breathe coal dust.

Beyond the significant risks to the health of miners, coal itself can have a negative impact on our environment and has much to do with mercury contamination from coal fired power plant emissions.