Black Lung Disease
Every year, almost 1,500 people who have
worked in the nation’s coalmines die from black lung disease. That’s equivalent
to the Titanic sinking every year, with no ships coming to the rescue. While
that disaster which took place so long ago continues to fascinate the nation,
black lung victims die an agonizing death in isolated rural communities, away
from the spotlight of publicity.
Black lung is the legal term for a
man-made, occupational lung disease that is contracted by prolonged breathing of
coalmine dust. Some call it miner’s asthma, silicosis,
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, coal workers' pneumoconiosis, or
black lung. However, they are all dust diseases with the same symptoms.
Only
the smallest particles of the coal dust make it past the nose, mouth, and throat
into the alveoli found deep in the lungs. The alveoli, or air sacs, are
responsible for exchanging gases with the blood, and are located at the end of
each bronchiole. Microphages, a type of blood cell, gather foreign particles and
carry them to where they can either be swallowed or coughed out. If too much
dust is inhaled over a long period of time, some dust-laden microphages and
particles collect permanently in the lungs causing black lung disease.
The
main symptom of the disease is shortness of breath, which gets worse as the
disease progresses. In severe cases, the patient may develop cor pulmonale,
which is an enlargement and strain on the right side of the heart caused by
chronic lung disease. Eventually, this may cause right-sided heart failure. Some
patients develop emphysema as a complication of black lung disease. Others
develop a severe type of black lung disease in which damage continues to the
upper part of the lungs even after exposure to the dust has ended called
progressive massive fibrosis.
Black lung disease can be diagnosed by
checking a patient’s history for exposure to the coal dust, followed by a chest
x-ray to see if the characteristic spots on the lungs are present. A pulmonary
function test may help in the diagnosis. However, all coalminer’s should have
chest x-rays every four years so the disease can be detected early.
Congress
placed strict limits on airborne dust and ordered operators to take periodic air
tests inside coalmines in 1969. Thanks to the law black lung disease has been
reduced among the nation’s 53,000 underground coal miners by more than
two-thirds. However, because of cheating the law has fallen far short of its
goal, which is to virtually eliminate the disease. Many mine operators, aided by
miners themselves, cheat on air quality tests to conceal lethal dust levels.
While the federal government has known about the cheating for over twenty
years, it has little to stop it because of priorities and a reluctance to
confront coal operators, according to an investigation by The Courier-Journal.
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