Black Lung disease found in coal workers in 30s, report finds

A Senate report released today blames the re-emergence of the disease on a “litany of regulator failure”.

Coal mine workers facing Black Lung disease.

The appearance of deadly Black Lung in Australian coal miners as young as 30 will be revealed in a Senate report today that blames the re emergence of the disease on a “litany of regulator failure” and “regulatory capture”.

The Senate select committee on Health report to be tabled today concludes the disease is “entirely preventable” but that “patchy and sometimes compromised health monitoring throughout Australia” contributed to the reappearance of coal workers pneumoconiosis.

And in a revelation that will shock the industry, the report will disclose that Australian men in their thirties have been diagnosed with the disease, committee chair Deborah O’Neill told The Australian.

The Queensland government has confirmed eight cases in that state over the past six months, thirty years after the disease was deemed eradicated.

The Committee’s recommendations, which are confidential until the report is tabled, are expected to focus on improving prevention and early intervention to reduce miners’ exposure to coal dust.

The report also considers ways to mitigate hazardous dust through engineering solutions and “consistent, mandatory and regular monitoring” of the levels of coal dust, as well as financial and medical support for CWP affected miners.

In hearings held at Mackay last month, the Committee heard evidence from specialist Professor Robert Cohen from the University of Illinois that “five to 10 years of intense exposure” was enough to cause the disease.

Further evidence heard in camera revealed that Australian men in their thirties had been diagnosed.

“The report will reflect key pieces of evidence we’ve received; the regulatory failure that was evident and ... evidence taken in camera around men in their thirties now being diagnosed with this disease in Australia,” Senator O’Neill said.

“Those young men leaving school, they’ve only had 14 years (in the workforce), and at the age of 30 they are being delivered this terrible sentence on their life, to say nothing of the flow-on impact for their families and children and broader community,” she added.

“We have had a mining boom and we have had a lot of young miners come in to work in our mines here in Queensland and in New South Wales”.

The report will also highlight “inconsistent risk mitigation”.

“The sum of all these failing parts has left Australian coal workers vulnerable to CWP and therefore vulnerable to early death,” the report will state.

“Failure to address these failures will inevitably lead to more cases of CWP in this country”.