Pneumoconiosis
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Pneumoconiosis, also known as miner's lung, is a lung condition caused by the inhalation of dust, characterized by formation of nodular fibrotic changes in lungs.
Many substances can cause pneumoconiosis including asbestos, silica, talc, kaolinite and other metal compounds.
Depending on the type of dust, variants of the disease are considered. For example there are silicosis, also known as grinders' disease; and pneumosilicosis, which is caused by the inhalation of the dust of stone, sand, or flint containing silica. Because many common minerals contain silica, there are different types of silicosis.
The term "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" was coined in 1935 as the putative longest word in the English language, but its alleged definition is identical to pneumoconiosis.
The U.S. Department of Labor administers a worker's compensation program devoted specifically to coal workers who contract coal workers pneumoconiosis and who are at least partially disabled by it. The program provides monthly compensation payments and medical treatment.
Incidents
The Hawk's Nest incident was one of the earliest and most prominent incidents of large-scale silicosis deaths. But while stringent occupational reforms have largely eliminated it in Europe, the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) estimates that a million workers remain at risk to silicosis, 100,000 of whom are at high risk. They estimate 59,000 will develop adverse effects.
But due to pressure from industry groups, its effects are little known and hardly acted upon. A 1992 Houston Chronicle investigation found "silicosis is often misdiagnosed by doctors, disdained by industry officials and unknown to the very workers who stand the greatest chance of getting it. ... Old warnings and medical studies have been ignored, products falsely advertised and government rules flouted--especially with regard to sandblasting, an activity so hazardous that NIOSH recommended its banning in 1974."
Types
- Asbestosis
- Bauxite pneumoconiosis
- Black lung disease
- Silicosis
In music
Black Lung is the name of the solo project of Industrial musician David Thrussell of Snog. Also, the famous punk-rock band Rancid wrote a song called "Black Lung" about the coal worker's disease.In Film
In the film Zoolander, Ben Stiller's character Derek Zoolander has this exchange with his father, Larry Zoolander, played by Jon Voight. Derek had returned home to work with his father and brothers in the coal mines.Derek Zoolander: [high-pitched cough] ... I think I'm getting the black lung, Pop. It's not very well ventilated down there.
Larry Zoolander: For Christ's sake, Derek, you've been down there one day. Talk to me in thirty years.
External links and Other Information
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