Black Lung Disease
Black Lung Disease
Every year, almost 1,500 people who have worked in the nation's coalmines die from black lung disease. That's equivalent to the Titanic sinking every year, with no ships coming to the rescue. While that disaster which took place so long ago continues to fascinate the nation, black lung victims die an agonizing death in isolated rural communities, away from the spotlight of publicity.
Black lung is the legal term for a man-made, occupational lung disease that is contracted by prolonged breathing of coalmine dust. Some call it miner's asthma, silicosis, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, coal workers' pneumoconiosis, or black lung. However, they are all dust diseases with the same symptoms.
Only the smallest particles of the coal dust make it past the nose, mouth, and throat into the alveoli found deep in the lungs. The alveoli, or air sacs, are responsible for exchanging gases with the blood, and are located at the end of each bronchiole.......
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