Government blasted for ignoring laws to prevent black lung disease

UPDATE: An inquiry into black lung disease will expand from coal workers to those who handled coal in the state’s ports, rail yards, power stations and workers who dug Brisbane’s underground tunnels.

Percy Verrall, who has black lung disease, has called for the State Government to shut down coal mines which fail to protect workers. Picture: AAP

• Black lung: More miners diagnosed

UPDATE: A Parliamentary inquiry into the deadly black lung disease will expand its gaze from coal workers to those who also handled coal above ground in the state’s ports, rail yards, power stations and workers who dug Brisbane’s underground tunnels.

A day after delivering its damning interim report that accused every health, regulatory and private body charged with the safety of coalminers of “massive systemic failure”, the Parliament voted to allow the committee to extend its terms of reference.

The committee will now hand down its report in September that will also include a draft Bill to overhaul the safety, health and compensation processes for the industry.

That’s despite not having the support of all committee members, with two Labor MPs going against Labor chair Jo-Ann Miller and the rest of the bi-partisan committee to argue that drafting legislation should be the job of Mining Minister Anthony Lynham.

In requesting the expansion, Ms Miller highlighted comments by the CFMEU’s Andrew Vickers who pointed out the inappropriateness of the Department of Natural Resources and Mines drafting legislation on behalf of Dr Lynham considering its own role in the health disaster.

Deputy chair and LNP MP Lawrence Springborg said the committee did not profess to be experts in the field, they did have an excellent knowledge of the issues that needed fixing.

Dr Lynham acknowledged the “potentially very concerning issues” raised in the committee’s report as he highlighted steps already taken to improve health and safety and vowed to introduce even tougher laws as soon as possible.

OVERNIGHT: A scathing report has exposed the catastrophic failure of every authority charged with keeping the state’s miners safe from the preventable but deadly black lung disease.

The Government ignored its own laws meant to keep safe those toiling in dangerous and dusty conditions as a host of medical professionals failed to diagnose and treat miners now dying from the disease.

And the chance to act 13 years ago, when a miner was diagnosed with a disease thought to be eradicated in the ’80s, was missed.

The interim parliamentary report of the Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis Select Committee yesterday condemned the Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Health, WorkCover, mine operators, health professionals and others for 30 years of failure.

Twenty people are now diagnosed with black lung and “many more” – perhaps hundreds or thousands – are expected to be diagnosed still.

The report said evidence suggested the DNRM did not monitor respirable dust limits in mines, nor prosecute operators for breaching limits.

“The committee has been appalled by the level of disregard for its work demonstrated by some senior officers of DNRM,” the committee wrote.

It complained of repeated “resistance and obstruction” by officers who had only given up documents and testimony by threat of summons.

The committee said it was “deeply disturbed” by the failure of the department’s Health Surveillance Unit to undertake any actual health surveillance.

Instead, it existed with one part-time occupational physician to store miners’ chest X-rays and health records in such inappropriate ways that they were now unreadable, including “in a janitor’s cupboard” and “in shipping containers”.

The committee said it would make significant recommendations by the year’s end as it applied for an extension of its terms of reference to probe respirable dust exposure for all workers, including those who dug Brisbane’s underground road tunnels.

Black lung sufferer Percy Verrall struggled to breathe last night as he called on the Queensland Government to close down mines if coal companies fail to protect their workers from developing the incurable respiratory disease.

The former miner said coal companies were not doing enough to keep their workers safe.

“They don’t seem to care,” Mr Verrall said. “All they’re worried about is selling their coal and getting their bonuses. They don’t realise the men who are digging that coal out for them, they’re the ones that are making them the money. They should be saying: ‘Right, we’re going to look out for the workers and make them safer’. They need to make sure no more get crook.”

Mr Verrall, from Ipswich, said governments and unions should be holding the coal companies to account.

“It’s the coal owners’ responsibility to fix this and the government and unions need to make sure they do it,” he said. “If they don’t, the government should turn around and say: ‘We’re going to close you down until you do.”

That included making sure coal companies did not exceed regulatory dust levels.

The 74-year-old said he had twice almost “kicked the bucket” after developing bleeding on his lungs as a result of black lung disease, also known as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis.

“It’s too late for me now,” he said. “I’m buggered. I’m sitting in my chair here trying to breathe. In weather like this, I really get bad. I can only walk around the yard once and that’s it. I’ve got to come and lay down until I feel a little bit better.

“What I’m worried about is the younger generation coming into the mines. We don’t want to see them get it.”

Mr Verrall said he feared many more coal miners had Black Lung disease than the 20 diagnosed in the last couple of years.

“A lot of them won’t say anything to the coal companies because they’re afraid that they’ll get sacked,” he said.

- with Janelle Miles