At least seven peasant miners have died of black lung disease and hundreds more have been diagnosed with the illness after working in gold mines in northwest China’s Gansu Province, the local health authority said Wednesday.

At least 314 cases had been confirmed in Gulang County of Wuwei City, said Cui Kai, the county’s health bureau chief.

These included 252 cases from Heisongyi town, where six had died. “Twelve cases, including one death, were reported in Huangyangchuan town and another 11 people were diagnosed in Shibalibu Village,” said Cui.

All the victims worked at a gold mine in Subei County in the industrial city of Jiuquan, 1,000 kilometers from their impoverished hometown.

“We received reports of suspected black lung disease from the local government in Heisongyi town in April, and began a medical survey,” said Cui.

The result, however, was shocking. Most patients had struggled with the disease for years. Some could not afford any treatment and simply waited to die.

Chen Dejin, 50, relies on an oxygen bottle 24 hours a day. “The doctor said no medicine would work on him any more,” said his wife, Ji Xinghua.

Chen was diagnosed in 2005. “We have borrowed more than 60,000 yuan (8,824 U.S. dollars) to cover his medical bills,” said Ji.

Chen’s workmate and neighbor Yang Zifa died early last year at the age of 36, leaving behind 70,000 yuan debts. His wife and two sons live on a government benefit of 880 yuan a year.

Most victims blamed the disease on “ill luck,” though they knew it was a result of inadequate protection.

“We wore very thin face masks and ventilation was poor in the pit. At the end of the day’s work we had to clean our nostrils of calcareous dust,” said Shang Zhifa, who was a miner for six years before he was confined to bed with the disease.

Despite the dust, there was no water to wet the drills or bathe themselves.

“Water had to be carried from 200 kilometers away,” said Shang. “About 20 of us shared one small basin of water to wash our hands and faces.”

Gulang County, locked in the remote mountains, is one of the poorest counties in China.

In Heisongyi town, the net per capita annual income was only 1,500 yuan last year, according to Li Cunguo, secretary of the Heisongyi Town Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Poverty forced local peasants into mining, which promised a stable income despite the high risk.

No one had a labor contract. “I asked, but the boss insisted an oral agreement would do,” said Shang. “I wouldn’t have agreed to that had I known the consequences.”

Without a labor contract, it was difficult to claim compensation or refund of medical costs, said Xu Shucai, an official in charge of labor and social security with Gulang county government. “We will work with the local government in Jiuquan to find a solution.”

Meanwhile, he said the county government had promised an annual allowance of 718 yuan for each patient.

One miner owner has denied the work caused the illness and he blamed tobacco.

“Mining cannot cause black lung disease,” said Pan Zhanlin, a business tycoon who owns the Deyi Mining Co. in Jiuquan, where some of the patients had worked. “They had lung problems because they smoked too much.”

Black lung, or pneumoconiosis, is a chronic occupational disease by the prolonged breathing of mine dust. There is no specific treatment for the ailment, according to Chinese Medical Association.

Observations of dust emissions from haul trucks show that if the dust emissions are uncontrolled, they can become a safety hazard by impairing the operator’s visibility. This increases the chance for haul truck accidents. Yet, the greatest long-term health danger of dust created from hauling operations is due to inhalation of the respirable dust [median diameter <4 micrometers (?m)] along with thoracic dust, which is equal to the EPA’s characterization of PM10 [particulate matter with a middle diameter <10 ?m]. Exposure to respirable dust has always been thought a health danger at surface mining operations, particularly if silica dust is present.

There are two governmental acts that police the air quality for mining operations: the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 and the Clean Air Act of 1970. The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 established the limits designed for dust in the work place for health and security purposes. The Clean Air Act of 1970 controls air emissions from facilities from an environmental viewpoint. Characterizing fugitive dust emissions from haul trucks may help mine operators understand the effects of exposure.

The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 recognized a maximum value for coal respirable dust of 2 mg/m3 for coal pit staff. The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) enacts and enforces mine worker safety and health standards to lessen mine worker injuries as well as job-related diseases. If silica is encountered at some stage in the sampling procedure then the applicable respirable dust standard is reduced to the quotient of 10 divided by the measurement of quartz in the dust. For non-coal mine workers, the applicable standard is the respirable dust standard of 10 divided by the total of the quartz proportion added to 2. Both of these dust standards are intended to limit employee respirable crystalline silica (quartz) contact to 0.1 mg/m3 or fewer for the work shift. Falling in line with these dust standards is expected to lessen a worker’s chance of job-related lung illness over an average life expectancy. Furthermore, MSHA’s nuisance dust maximum value (total dust) for non-coal miners is 10 mg/m3.

Richard Harington spends nearly all of his time working to find solutions to haul road dust control products and other conservation and ecological projects not only for work but for pleasure as well. For more information regarding dust control or Haul Road Dust Control  please contact the author of this article.

Respirable coal mine dust can cause lung diseases such as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), emphysema, silicosis, and bronchitis—known collectively as black lung. Black lung can lead to lung impairment, permanent disability, and even death. While there is no cure for black lung, there are important and potentially life-saving measures that MSHA requires to be undertaken to reduce exposure to respirable coal mine dust and prevent disease. Even though these measures have been required for many years, new cases of black lung disease continue to occur among the nation’s coal miners, even in younger miners.

Recently, MSHA conducted a targeted enforcement initiative that focused on miners’ exposures to respirable coal mine dust at selected underground coal mines. As a result of the lessons MSHA learned during this initiative, the agency requests that underground coal mine operators conduct audits of their respirable dust monitoring and control programs and address any deficiencies.

Dust sampling programs did not adequately address proper maintenance of sampling equipment or ensure that samples are collected at the required times (either on shifts or days).

Many mining operations implement a haul road dust control program in order to decrease the level of fugitive dust in the work area. 

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Mining officials and medical experts say education, stricter enforcement and new regulations can curb the disease, which has been on the rise in the region and has killed some 10,000 miners in the last decade.

Thursday’s meeting was the first of four informational sessions planned by Mine Safety and Health Administration.

“There is a collective agreement that we have to fix this problem,” MSHA Director Joseph Main told a packed room that included representatives from mining companies, the United Mine Workers of America and former miners suffering from the ailment.

Black lung is a collection of debilitating and potentially fatal diseases from respirable coal mine dust exposure.

Based on recent data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, cases of black lung are on the rise, and even young miners are showing evidence of advanced and debilitating lung disease from excessive dust exposure. Experts have been at a loss to explain why.

Gary Hairston had to retire from mining at 48 after developing the illness.

“My wind is getting shorter and shorter, and before it’s over with I probably will be on oxygen,” he said. “The things I love to do with my family I can’t do no more, just because I never did think about dust hurting me.”

The federal government has spent more than $44 billion in compensation for miners disabled by black lung since 1970.

The plan unveiled Thursday aims to address information gaps about black lung by educating miners, mine operators and mine inspectors about the ailment, Main said.

A weeklong project called the Dust Sweep will be rolled out in mines across the country, making sure required dust control measures are in place and providing the latest information on black lung.

The second part of the strategy will come in stricter enforcement of existing regulations, Main said, with mine inspectors looking for dust control shortcomings.
“We want these problems fixed,” he said.

The final component, which involves new federal regulation, is the haziest part of the plan. Main said he couldn’t go into too many details, citing advice from agency lawyers.

MSHA says it’s working on the approval of a new technology — continuous personal dust monitors.

If approved, miners would wear the monitor on their hip to measure exposure to dust levels during their work shift.

The dust monitors carry a price tag of about $10,000 apiece.

UMW President Cecil Roberts told the crowd of several hundred that black lung was “the nation’s problem.”

Roberts added that mining laws need to be updated. Miners are spending longer hours underground, which equals an increase in coal dust exposure.
“Either the law isn’t stringent enough or it isn’t being enforced,” he said.

“The nation should band together in this coalition that’s in this room today and end this terrible disease once and for all. … These miners gave their health, gave their life, to energize this nation so this nation could prosper.”

MSHA will hold additional meetings meeting Dec. 7 in Washington, Pa., Dec. 10 in Lebanon, Va., and on Dec. 11 in Frankfort, Ky.