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From The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 16, 19 April 1948, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Any lingering doubts as to the extreme danger in which the country’s coal miners live and work were dispelled by the Centralia mine disaster which took 111 lives last year. But the Centralia tragedy did not tell the whole story. Mine accidents kill over 100 men – and injure another 4,000 men every month of every year!
Outside of mining circles very little is known about the slow death of silicosis, a lung disease which afflicts well over half of the miners who have worked in the mines 25 to 30 years. As defined by a special committee of the American Public Health Association, silicosis is “a disease due to breathing air containing silica (SiO2), characterized anatomically by generalized fibrotic changes and clinically by shortness of breath, decreased chest expansion, lessened capacity for work, increased susceptibility to tuberculosis and by characteristic X-ray findings.”
Silicosis and anthraco-silicosis (a modified form of silicosis due to silica mixed with large amounts of carbon dust) are the chief occupational diseases of coal miners. These diseases may occur during the mining and processing of either anthracite or bituminous coal. Underground workers are the chief victims of anthraco-silicosis because there is generally very poor ventilation in the mines and the workers are constantly assailed by heavy clouds of dust bearing silica particles.
Death certificates of miners very often give as the cause of death the broad classification, “pulmonary disease.” This suits the purposes of the mine owners, who instruct the company doctors to play-down the silicosis rate so that they will not be required to pay for dust removal in their mines.
But honest medical men tell a different story about the rate of silicosis in mining areas. Here is a portion of a report by Drs. S. Cummins and A. Sladden of South Wales:
“From a not inconsiderable experience of postmortem examinations on coal miners, we draw the conclusion that out of the general classification, ‘pulmonary diseases’ given as the cause of death in coal miners, a very important proportion consists essentially of anthraco-silicosis, complicated often with bronchitis, not seldom with tuberculosis, and frequently terminating in pneumonia.”
Small wonder that the coal miners, who have seen the truth of these scientific observations in the fatal sickness of a relative or a union brother want a Health and Welfare Fund – and that they want their union to control it.
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Last updated: 30 January 2022