Senate looks into rebirth of black lung disease

The emergence of ’black lung’ disease in Australia for the first time since the 1970s has sparked a Senate inquir­y.

The emergence of the deadly coalminers’ disease “black lung” in Australia for the first time since the 1970s has sparked a Senate inquir­y, amid fears that more cases lurk in a backlog of more than 100,000 medical checks and X-rays.

The Senate select committee on health will announce the inquiry­ today after the Queensland government confirmed five cases of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis have been diagnosed in recent­ months, 30 years after the disease was deemed to have been eradicated locally.

Coalmining companies and health officials are expected to be called to testify on dust levels in mines and screening procedures — amid concerns that Australian radiologists lack the training to detect the disease in X-rays — with the first hearings to take place in Mackay, in north Queensland, in May.

The five miners diagnosed with the disease, which is untreatable but can be controlled through minimising exposure to coal dust, have filed compensation claims against Queensland mine owners BHP, Anglo and Vale, in what is expected to be the first of dozens of workers’ compensation cases. The coalminers union has also left open the option­ that it could mount a class action on behalf of miners.

The Senate inquiry comes after The Australian revealed this month that coal dust levels at the Carborough Downs mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, where three miners have been diag­nosed with black lung, were more than double the legal limit.

“The committee will examine issues around the detection of the illness and treatment for sufferers (and) whether reduced federal government hospital and health funding has affected the ability for the public health system to respond­ to the re-emergence of this disease,” committee chairwoman NSW Labor senator Deborah O’Neill told The Australian.

“There are a number of worrying factors to this outbreak, with reports of one case in NSW, and rising concern among mining communities and health professionals in Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.”

The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union has set up a website for miners concerned about their exposure to the disease, solely caused by exposure­ to coal dust, and is sending chest X-rays to the US for more complete analysis.

The Queensland government, which monitors coal dust levels, has said all mines found to be non-compliant since the disease outbreak were now operating safely. State Mines and Natur­al Resource­s Minister Anth­ony Lynham has announced a separate review into the outbreak.

It is understood the union has already received inquiries about a possible class action, and one union source said “all legal avenues” were being considered. But the CFMEU’s Queensland president Steve Smyth said: “At the moment­ the union’s focus is supporting those workers in making workers’ compensation claims while campaigning for a better regulatory regimen.”

Submissions to the inquiry are due by February 26.