Extract from ABC News
Updated
Photo:
The apparent absence of black lung cases should have rung alarm bells, Dr Cohen says. (Supplied)
An internationally renowned expert on black lung has
told an inquiry the disease was likely continuing to cause the deaths of
Queensland coal miners during the decades it was thought to have been
eradicated.
Key points:
- Expert says authorities looking for black lung weren't vigilant
- Death rate from disease likely to be higher than first thought
- Workers' X-rays discovered in Ipswich shipping container
Nineteen cases of black lung have been confirmed in Queensland.
For 30 years the state's mining industry was thought to have been rid of the disease.
But US black lung expert Dr Robert Cohen told a state parliamentary inquiry he did not believe it ever went away.
"You're mining significant quantities of coal in Queensland and not to have one single case, it sort of begs the imagination," Dr Cohen said.
"That's something that really should ring alarm bells and have people thinking 'we're not looking carefully'."At the same time in the US, black lung was continuing to show up as a cause of death on former coal workers' death certificates.
Dr Cohen said people weren't vigilant about looking for it.
"If you don't take X-rays well or don't look at the X-rays, you won't find disease in your population and you don't have to do anything about it," he said.
Deputy committee chair and LNP MP Lawrence Springborg asked whether it was true as many as 70,000 former coal workers in the US had black lung listed as contributing to their death on their death certificate.
"Those numbers were significant underestimates" Dr Cohen replied.
He said that it was likely black lung contributed to the deaths of many Queensland miners.
'We went to work and now we're gonna die'
Mr Springborg said the inquiry had heard as many as one in 70 current coal workers have some indicator of black lung in their X-rays.
"You're potentially talking about thousands of coal workers in Queensland who have had black lung disease which has probably contributed in many cases to their death," Mr Springborg told reporters.
Former coal miner Steve Mellor found out last year he has black lung.
"This shouldn't be like this, men are dying just because we went to work, that's all we did, we went to work and now we're gonna die from it," Mr Mellor said.
He said he wasn't interested in attributing blame.
"We need to stop it from happening again, we need to stop these people from going underground and getting this disease."
X-rays found in shipping container, closet
There was also criticism at the inquiry of how coal workers' X-rays had been handled.
Photo:
Jo-Ann Miller said x-rays were found inside this shipping container. (Supplied: Queensland Parliament)
Committee chair Jo-Ann Miller said thousands of X-rays were found in a shipping container next to a Health Surveillance Unit at Ipswich.
She said others were kept in a broom closet.
"We understand that a lot of that evidence, their X-rays, have probably been destroyed now. It's an indictment on public administration in this state that this has occurred," Ms Miller said.
Dr Cohen said people working at coal ports were not immune to the threat of the disease.
"These workers are exposed to a dust that we know can cause respiratory illness and we need to look at them and see if they are sick or not," he said.
He suggested mobile clinics could be one way to improve surveillance of the disease.
The parliamentary inquiry is due to report back next month.
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