Rates of black lung disease have doubled in the last decade, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The disease, which is caused by inhaling coal dust, now occurs in almost 10 percent of coal miners who work 25 or more years underground, as opposed to about 4 percent a decade ago. Safety standards enacted in 1969 were supposed to prevent black lung altogether, but, uh, that hasn't so much happened. Black-lung expert Dr. Robert Cohen says the respirable-dust standard set by the Mine Safety and Health Administration is probably both too high and not being enforced. "We should not be seeing this prevalence rate or this type of advanced disease in the 21st century," he says. Nor should we be relying on such a health-ravaging, planet-raping, public-teat-sucking energy source in the 21st century. But we digress.
Black Lung Is the New Black
Rates of black lung disease double in a decade 1
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14 Sep 2007 5:01 PM
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iabmc Posted 5:14 am
18 Sep 2007
--If the miners are not utilizing the reccommended protective gear, Why? Does it interfere with their mobility? communication? What side effects does it present?
-- a change in the architecture of the mines? Is there more mortality and less morbidity?
--Is the sample skewed because the miners don't work 25 years as miners? or change companies (data sources?)
-- Reporting habits have changed?
-- Minors are coming forward thinking the diagnosis is no longer a death sentence / part of the job?
--Are there environmental factors that are causing increased black lung cases in non-miners? Do people in mining communities sleep with charcoal briquettes under their pillows?
These are our Brothers. As a consumer of conventional energy, their lungs are in my hands.
Nancy
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