Black lung disease

A disease that was thought to be eradicated over 30 years ago has recently been diagnosed in four Queensland miners in one week, a recent ABC news report stated. Queensland's mining companies are offering for workers to have new X-rays taken and to have existing X-rays re-read. Ten people in Queensland have now been diagnosed with the disease in the past year.

A recent article in the Medical Journal of Australia looks at Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis (CWP), this untreatable but preventable lung disease arising from chronic inhalation of coal dust.

Coal workers’ pneumoconiosis: an Australian perspective. Graeme R Zosky, Ryan F Hoy, Elizabeth J Silverstone, Fraser J Brims, Susan Miles, Anthony R Johnson, Peter G Gibson and Deborah H Yates, Med J Aust ; 204 (11): 414-418.