Week 10 blog:black lung making a come back

A recent article on black lung making a comeback is very appropriate for this weeks topic on occupational disease. In this article, there were evidences that black lung disease is starting to increase and it is not just pneumoconiosis but more people are being disease with a severe form of fibrosis called Progressive Massive Fibrosis(PMF), where there is large mass build up in the upper lungs that cause it even harder to breath and would damage the heart. The average age being diagnosed with black lung is 50 years old , where miners have worked at least 20 years in a coal mine. What is alarming is that a miner that was interviewed reveal that many coal mines have reported fake self reports and only put on a show during surveillance inspection and once the inspectors leave things go back to normal with lack of safety and not following guidelines. A Dr. Allen in the article say that the symptoms don't usually appear until 10,20,even 30 years later, therefore educating the coal miners about lung health is very important. I think that we need to have more stricter monitoring, more accountability for those that write fake reports and to stop coal mining by finding other energy options.






Register-Herald, W. H. (2018, March 25). Black lung "climbing again" (With VIDEO). Retrieved March 26, 2018, from http://www.register-herald.com/news/black-lung-climbing-again-with-video/article_817efc4e-3022-11e8-9b95-0f1721c75597.html

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 1, 2018 at 7:00 AM

    I completely agree, there definitely needs to be more education for coal miners about this health issue because it is very serious. Plus, as you mentioned, coal mining needs to stop all together. There are plenty of other safer renewable energy options. The health of these coal miners is not expendable, we need to find ways to prevent this occupational disease now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownApril 1, 2018 at 12:37 PM

    Hi Feng,
    This is so scary! I can't believe that black lung is making a comeback even with the regulations that are in place. I'm not sure why people are still coal mining with all the new renewable options out there for energy.

    ReplyDelete

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