The return of black lung or coal workers’ pneumoconiosis in Queensland earlier this year has shocked the medical profession and the mining industry, which believed the disease had been eliminated decades ago. Professor Malcolm Sim from the Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health who was appointed to lead a panel of expert to review the existing health screening system in Queensland for mine workers. The team has found that in one of the earlier cases this year, a miner’s “significant decline in lung function” was missed because a doctor could not obtain past health records. In the article, it also mentioned that the lung health specialists and the mining union have criticised the level of secrecy around test results and the direct involvement of mining companies in their employee’s health screening process.
Source: Black lung disease: more cases emerge among Queensland coal workers | Australia news | The Guardian