Photo: Ron Levine/iStockphoto
Washington — Workers who operate underground mining machinery accounted for more than two-thirds of deaths associated with coal workers’ pneumoconiosis during a recent four-year period, according to the results of a NIOSH study.
Also known as black lung, coal workers’ pneumoconiosis is a deadly condition caused by exposure to respirable coal mine dust. Numerous studies show that cases are on the rise.
Researchers examined 2020-2023 mortality data for U.S. residents 15 and older in the National Vital Statistics System. They found that among the 1,754 coal workers’ pneumoconiosis deaths identified, 71.8% involved mining, with construction (6.4%) and manufacturing (3.9%) following.
Within the mining sector, underground mining machine operators experienced the most deaths associated with black lung, at 67.8%. Employees categorized as “other extraction workers” – including rock splitters – accounted for 20.1% of those deaths.
The researchers also found that 73.9% of all the black lung-associated deaths were recorded in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Most of the workers who died were male (94.8%) and 65 and older (78.8%).
“The continuing occurrence of CWP-associated deaths underscores the potential value of a comprehensive prevention program (control of exposures to coal mine dust, early disease detection and medical care),” the study authors write, “and supports potential benefits of ongoing surveillance.”
The study was published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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