Most miners killed in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion on April 2010 had black lung

[n2doc]

Posted on: May 31, 2011 1:00 PM, by The Pump Handle

by Ellen Smith

For those who don't know the history of the Hawk's Nest Tunnel, from 1930 to 1935, approximately 3,000 workers carved a 3 mile tunnel through the Gauley Mountain in West Virginia in order to divert the New River for an electrical station at a Union Carbide plant. Ventilation was limited at best. The miners were not given modest protections like masks or breathing equipment. Quartz dust from cutting into the mountain invaded their lungs. Signs of the deadly lung disease, silicosis, began for some within eight weeks of employment. It's estimated that up to 1,000 miners who worked on the tunnel -- or 33% -- contracted silicosis, according to a 2008 book, The Hawks Nest Tunnel by Patricia Spangler.

Public health historians learned in their studies that the building of the Hawk's Nest Tunnel in West Virginia was considered one of the worst man-made industrial disease accidents in U.S. history. But as we know, it wasn't an accident. Workers were placed in harm's way for profit. Their health be damned.

Fast forward to May 2011.

Last week an independent review panel, appointed by Senator Joe Manchin while he was Governor of West Virginia , reported that 17 of the 29 miners killed in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion on April 5, 2010 had pneumoconiosis or black lung disease. This is according to the autopsy reports from the West Virginia Medical Examiners Office. Four of the other deceased miners were diagnosed by the medical examiner as having "anthracosis," a term used in lieu of pneumoconiosis to describe the beginnings of the disease. Five of the UBB miners did not have sufficient lung tissue to make a pneumoconiosis determination, according to the report. Three miners did not have black lung.

These are horrific numbers, but it gets worse. Jason Atkins, a roof bolter in the UBB mine with five years of mining experience, was one of the miners diagnosed with the disease. He was only 25 years old.

more
http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2011/05/upper_big_branch_hawks_nest_re.php

[4_TN_TITANS]

1. And still, no one goes to jail. n/t

[Brickbat]

2. Oh -- well, that means that the company isn't responsible, right?

They were going to die anyway.

[PDJane]

3. That tells me that their mine workers are

disposable people. This is a job that should automatically be unionized. Without question or appeal.

And don't tell me that they're going to stop mining if the workers are unionized. They won't. They'll just make a bit less money.

[kristopher]

4. +1

[FBaggins]

5. Pshaw! How dangerous could that black lungy stuff be anyway?

Surely it's bigger news that a couple workers in Japan may have crossed the 250 mSv dose line and now have a couple percent higher chance of cancer decades down the road?