Known Pneumoconiosis Cases

Besides the dangers to life and limb from mining accidents other factors namely disease, caused hardship and death to the mining community. Non fatal diseases were Bursitis, or Beat knee or Elbow. Hernias caused by lifting and pushing heavy objects, also Dermatitis a skin disease caused by exposure to water or chemicals in materials used in the industry. An extremely distressing condition was Nystagmus, an uncontrollable oscillation of the eyeballs caused by working in dim light during the earlier years when candles or oil lamps were the only illumination underground. This condition ceased gradually with the introduction of electric lamps and electric roadway lighting. Over the years these conditions became recognised as Industrial diseases for which compensation could be claimed. The killer which is still causing deaths was dust, the number of victims will never be known and the mining unions with the help of M Ps in parliament fought for years to have the condition recognised in law and made compensable.

It was not until 1912 that the medical profession agreed that dust in many industries as well as coalmining were affecting the workpeople in those industries that legislation passed through parliament. The term Silicosis was used, among the many irritants to the lungs silica had to be present which excluded most coal mines other than those working Anthracite coal. The breakthrough came in 1942 and passed in to law in 1943 the doctors had researched all their data and agreed a new terminology for dust related conditions to be called Pneumoconiosis. With the establishment of the National Coal Board in 1948 a Pneumoconiosis panel was set up in Sheffield to adjudicate on individual claims.

Pneumoconiosis is a distressing condition in its later stages and many sufferers could only breathe with the assistance of an oxygen cylinder and mask movement being very difficult their last days confined to a bed or chair

In 1993 British Coal introduced payments for persons who had worked in the pits more than twenty years and suffered an agreed percentage of breathing difficulties due to Bronchitis and Emphysema.

During research on this section from the Nottingham City Coroners closed records and odd newspaper items.

Usually death is given as Bronchitis and Emphysema with Pneumoconiosis a contributing cause. All persons named have a degree of pneumoconiosis on their death certificates as given by a coroner.

As the older generation of miners fades away this scourge will pass with them soon to be history, as will they and their industry.

 Annual deaths from Pneumoconiosis dust disease United Kingdom

PNEUMOCONIOSIS

Dust disease in coalmining was 'the most significant of Britain's occupational health tragedies' and is detailed in McIvor and Johnston's book, Miners' Lung. From 1918, silicosis was a 'prescribed' industrial disease (and sufferers eligible for benefit) but relatively few incapacitated miners fitted the exact criteria.

Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis (CWP), another occupational lung disease, was eventually recognised as a prescribed industrial disease in 1943. Miners with this had to leave the industry but were allowed back from 1948, when the more seriously incapacitated could work in 'approved dust conditions' on the surface, while those in the early stages could work in 'approved dust conditions' underground.

CWP was responsible for 700-800 deaths per year in the late 1940s, peaking at over 1,600 per year from the early 1950s to the late 1960s. Between 1930 and 1990, the total recorded deaths from CWP were more than 40,000; this is an underestimate as many early cases were misdiagnosed. Significantly, three to four times that number of miners suffered from 'progressive massive fibrosis', the most disabling stage of CWP.

Under union pressure, a government scheme in 1974 provided lump sum compensation for certified pneumoconiotics. But it was not until 1993 (when most of the industry had been shut) that chronic bronchitis and emphysema became prescribed industrial diseases for coalminers who had worked 20 years underground (two years as a screen worker on the surface was equivalent to one underground). By the 2004 deadline to register for compensation under the 1998 bronchitis and emphysema litigation against British Coal, some 570,000 claims (more than half by families of deceased miners) had been made!

The miners' unions had campaigned for decades for recognition of the industry's occupational lung diseases and had challenged orthodox medical knowledge in the process. They had also argued for improved dust-suppression techniques and legislation to back these up. With increasing mechanisation and use of power-tools in coal mines, the dust problem worsened in the post-war years. The Coal Mines (Respirable Dust) Regulations 1975 imposed a standard but problems of measurement made it almost unenforceable.

The above section is transcribed from Britain at work 1945-1995 Voices from the workplace.

If you believe you are suffering from illness or disease as a result of working in the coal industry
contact the miners help centre nearest to you:

Known Pneumoconiosis and Silicosis Casess
1948