[Research] Surface coal miners at risk for Black Lung

The concern about black lung isn't just focused on coal miners working underground. A new study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health documents severe cases of the disease among surface coal miners too.

The study, the first of its kind in a decade used chest X-rays and breathing tests gathered by a mobile surveillance van which examined coal miners in 16 states from Pennsylvania to Utah.

Mr Cara Halldin who coordinated the study for the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Contro said that "You expect to see less disease among surface miners because you would think they are out in the open air and probably not breathing in as much dust as if they were in a confined space."

Of the miners tested:

1. 2,257 worked more than a year at a surface coal mine.
2. 46 (2%) were diagnosed with coal workers' pneumoconiosis. All but nine of those miners never worked underground.
3. A dozen had progressive massive fibrosis the advanced stage of the disease.

The last black lung study of surface coal miners in 2002 involved about 10,500 miners and found an illness rate of fewer than 2%. The rate of advanced disease was only 0.1%. Yet the current study found five times that rate.

Mr Halldin said that "We do see less disease than among underground miners but we see more severe disease among younger miners. The most surprising finding involved those miners who never worked underground. We identified coal workers' pneumoconiosis and severe pneumoconiosis in surface miners who reported no years of underground mining in their tenure."

Most of those with black lung are from the same region in Appalachia where the increase in the disease in underground miners is most pronounced. That suggests that a possible cause may be exposure to silica. Surface mines in the region include coal seams laced with silica laden rock.

The study said that these findings suggest that current federal permissible dust exposure limits might be insufficient to protect against disease or are not being adequately controlled to prevent excess dust exposure. Miners who have worked on the surface describe clouds of dust around mining and drilling machines, around coal trucks and along mine roadways.

Source : Npr.org