Black lung

The Eederal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act set standards for mine ventilation, roof support, coal dust concentrations levels, mine inspections, and equipment. As a part of this comprehensive act, miners must receive medical examinations at employer expense, and payments are made from the U.S. government to miners who caimot work because of black lung disease. 

Total frequencies of environmental illness are difficult to measure. When causes can be identified, however, scientists observe that frequencies of occurrence of a particular illness vary directly with the severity and extent of exposure. Particularly frequent in the workplace are skin lesions from many different causes and pulmonary diseases related to the inhalation of various dusts, such as coal dust (black lung), cotton dust (brown lung), asbestos fibers (asbestosis), and silica dust (silicosis). Environmental agents can also cause biological effects without overt clinical illness (for example, chromosome damage from irradiation). 

Coal from underground mines is assessed an excise tax of 1.10 per ton, and coal from surface mines is assessed a tax of 0.55 per ton, but in each case, a constraint is added that states that the tax cannot exceed 4.4 percent of the sales price. The receipts from these taxes are allocated to the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. Monies from this trust fund are used to pay for health benefits to coal miners. 

Leaking underground storage tank trust fund excise tax 0.2 Motororboat gasoline and special fuels excise taxes 0.2 Black lung trust fund coal excise tax 0.6... 

Spending 1 hour in a coal mine Black lung disease... 

Individuals whose jobs expose them to unusually high particulate concentrations are especially susceptible to health problems from the pollutant. For example, men and women who work with the mineral asbestos are very prone to development of a serious and usually fatal condition known as asbestosis, in which fibers of the mineral become embedded in the interstices (the empty spaces within tissue) of the lung. Similar conditions are observed among coal workers who inhale coal dust (pneumoconiosis, or black lung disease) textile workers (byssinosis, or brown lung disease) those who work with clay, brick, silica, glass, and other ceramic materials (silicosis) and workers exposed to high levels of beryllium fumes (berylliosis). 

Silicosis occurs in industries in which the air is polluted by silica dust, e g., pottery, metal grinding, sandblasting and mining in rock. The inhaled silica gives rise to the production of diffuse fibrosis in the lungs moreover it facilitates the growth of the tubercle bacillus so that tuberculosis is a possible complication. A special form of silicosis, called anthracosis (black lung), occurs in coal miners who are exposed to a mixed dust, mainly of coal, with a small proportion of silica. 

Pulmonary fibrosis in coal miners (called black lung disease). 

Perhaps the most widely known health impact of coal is black lung disease also known as coal workers pneumoconiosis. This was a widespread respiratory problem of coal miners caused by inhalation of dust particles during mining. The mineralogical content of the coal may play a role in the incidence and severity of the disease (Finkelman et al., 2002). 

Coal dust, coal fly ash Dusts generated by coal mining, processing, and combustion activities. Inhalation. Black lung — includes CWP, progressive massive fibrosis, chronic airway obstruction or bronchitis, emphysema possible silicosis due to intermixed crystalline silica. 

Cancer, heart disease Black lung disease Air pollution Accident Accident Accident... 

Sayers remained at the Bureau of Mines until a new interior secretary replaced him in 1947. While still in office as a lame duck, and (according to the syndicated newspaper columnist Drew Pearson) without checking with his superiors, Sayers sent Lewis a letter that the Mine Workers president used to justify a national coal strike.37 A few months later, he was rewarded by Lewis with the position of chairman of the medical board of the union s newly established health plan, which in the following years resisted recognition of black lung disease.38... 

Derickson, Black Lung, pp. 69—81. Harrington in Butte A. Derickson, Silicosis Epidemic in Western Hardrock Mining,. 

Examples of serious harm to workers from materials used and made in the manufacturing workplace are well known black lung disease and asbestosis stand out by the number of people affected and the severity of the results to long-term exposure to coal dust and asbestos fibers, respectively. Thus it is logical that, when dealing with bulk drugs (chemicals with potent and multiple biological activities), and as with thermochemi-... 

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