An Epidemic Is Killing Thousands of Coal Miners

[gnu8]

It's clear that no one should be working in a mine without at minimum an N95 mask and probably a PAPR (powered air purifying respirator). I wonder if there is any reason at all, other than preserving corporate profit margins, that the coal industry has failed to adopt simple and well understood industrial hygiene practices.

Clean coal indeed.

[whyenot]

That's a good point -- why aren't mining companies buying PAPRs for their workers? PAPRs are designed for difficult conditions like hot and damp, and at least in my experience, the constant flow of air over your face cools you down and is a lot more comfortable than a traditional respirator. Mining is a relatively well paid profession. Yes, PAPRs are expensive ($1,500), and depending on how often they need to be changed, the cost of filters can quickly add up, but even for a heartless corporation, wouldn't it make monetary sense to invest a few $1,000 a year per worker to keep your most experienced employees, avoid lawsuits, etc.?

[adanto6840]

Surely it's cheaper to provide this kind of protection (I assumed it would be OSHA-mandated honestly) than it is to pay for the healthcare and/or lawsuits that follow?

I admittedly haven't read the article yet, but it's surprising to me that black lung / industrial air quality isn't something that OSHA (or similar) is tasked with ensuring ample worker protections for.

[maxxxxx]

"Clean coal" was always a bullshit term like "light cigarettes". It was just a way to delay any real action.

[test6554]

The ironic thing is that this illness is due to non-coal dust (silicates) in the air which are much finer than coal dust. And because they are non-coal dust, they escaped regulation for a long time.

[rbritton]

Are coal mines hot like deep metal mines? In The Deep Dark [0], it started that many of the miners skimped on safety devices even when available because of the extreme temperature and humidity if nothing else.

[0]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307238776/ref=oh_aui_sear...

[matte_black]

Respirators aren't all that expensive, you can buy one at a hardware store. Why wouldn't miners just bring their own?

[munchbunny]

I think it's a story we're all quite familiar with: in the absence of someone keeping an industry honest, the industry tends to develop honesty problems, because cutting corners makes the decision-makers more money, and the externalities are just that: externalities.

[munk-a]

I think in the modern political stage we've forgotten that regulations on industry is not a market distortion but a market correction (when done correctly). Regulations exist to incorporate the costs of externalities into the cost of doing business.

This sort of a market correction only receives criticism on an inter-industry level (and possibly with regards to imports if the cost is only applied domestically) because everyone in that industry is motivated to care about the well being of their workers without suffering an economic disadvantage for doing so (in fact, not caring is often a penalty beyond the cost to adhere to the regulation to make adherence an economically sound decision).

[fzeroracer]

Well said, I couldn't have put it better myself. I see all these people clamoring for the return of coal and coal miners, yet the amount of miners dying due to entirely preventable causes is infuriating. We're willing to throw away anything and everything for the sake of making slightly more money for people that already have too much to count.

[ars]

> in the absence of someone keeping an industry honest

Aren't mines mostly unionized? Isn't that like the #1 reason for a union to exist?

[syntaxing]

It's disgusting how coal mine owners doesn't even want to admit that it's a problem. It's only a "potential" problem and the science isn't conclusive. What a load of shit. Silicosis is a well studied health hazard. What do you expect when you mine the earth and silica is everywhere in the ground?

[avs733]

Humans, all humans, are prideful. What you are talking about is admitting that the job they have been doing for years and is their best hope of a decent standard of living is literally killing them. That the red meat beliefs they are fed about the evils of government regulation built on the threats of a loss of that income.

On top of that you pile evidence about one thing. Sure it's true but this isn't about a single fact or outcome or causality, it's about conceptual change[0] which is about changing one or more of the schema that frame how we see the world. That is significantly harder and a lot of studies show that evidence contrary to a belief not only is ineffective at creating it, it can reinforce it.

long story short...the attitudes and reactions have very little to do with the chain of evidence related to disease.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_change

[ggm]

Related problem in public health monitoring of mines in Queensland Australia:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-29/black-lung-report-cat...

Interestingly, the public health and epidemiologists they used for a lot of this (the workers I mean) appear to be American.

[cxr_ai]

We've seen these kind of lung problems crop up with many mining companies in Southeast Asia and Africa as well. Currently working on chest X-ray + AI solutions to provide fast, affordable screening since the biggest factors seems to be cost and slow turnaround time for radiologists. Feel free to test out our AI algorithms below:

https://app.semantic.md/classify/cxr

[Geojim]

I file this one under memories are short, and dust masks are a pain in the arse. Sure labour laws are wanting for your Appalachian thin seam coal miner, but the union strong Australian industry had had a similar revelation, albeit with reportable cases in the tens, not thousands).

Dust masks are totally effective. The main problem is convincing miners to wear them, all shift, in the heat, and the humidity. The only effective motivator I've seen for the industry are miners getting sick.

In my fifteen years of underground coal I've seen it go from crews where none wore dust masks, to everyone wears them, and it's not like black lung or silicosis are new to mining. And what's interesting is most wear them purely out of self concern, the minority due to workplace health and safety rules.

[vondur]

Pretty sad. That’s what killed my grandfather back in the 1950s while my mother was a child. Can’t belie its still happening 60 years later.

[KirinDave]

I've long had a rule in my life: "When someone can only accept a conversation or submit to an idea if it is framed in ways that specifically impact them, then they're most likely not in possession of any idea or perspective worth sharing in the first place."

If you're angry that a publication addresses a human problem on a human level because, it seems, you're upset about what fractional cents of cost it would have added per ton of coal on the market? You're not only frighteningly devoid of empathy, but you're also doubly wasting your time by reading the article then complaining about it here.