Mining boom results in recurrence of black lung disease
For the past 40 years, NIOSH has conducted surveys and monitored trends in the prevalence of coal miners' pneumoconiosis (also known as black lung disease), including progressive massive fibrosis (PMF), the worst form of the disease. PMF is an advanced, debilitating, and lethal form of black lung with no cure and limited treatment options. NIOSH researchers note while the prevalence of this devastating disease in long-term underground miners had essentially been eliminated in the late 1990s, by 2012 it had rebounded to a level ten times higher than those 15 years earlier to levels not seen since the early 1970s.
The NIOSH researchers note that “excessive inhalation of coal mine dust is the sole cause of PMF in working coal miners, so this increase can only be the result of overexposures and/or increased toxicity stemming from changes in dust composition.” They conclude that “despite readily available dust control technology and best practices guidance, recent findings suggest dust exposures have not been adequately controlled and that a substantial portion of U.S. coal miners continue to develop PMF.”