Black Lung
The black lung movement was a movement formed in the late 1960’s in which the miners fought for the health benefits to cover black lung disease. Black lung is directly caused by mining and working with coal. Mildred Mullins wrote this poem and hung it on the coffin of her dead husband in the Capital to display what was going on, “Compensation we are asking,
While alive and still gasping;
When life is o’er and hymns are sung,
Then they’ll know we have black lung.( “Charleston Gazette” 15)” The miners felt that since their job caused this disease that they should be compensated for it. The coal companies felt that mining did not cause this lung disease and that the miners were just making it up.
Black lung is the legal term used to describe a preventable lung disease that is contracted by prolonged breathing of coal mine dust. Black lung is an occupational disease meaning that it is man-made and preventable. The name black lung comes from the fact that those with the disease have lungs that look black instead of pink. In the medical world it is best known as coal worker’s pneumoconiosis. In haled coal dust progressively builds up in the lungs leading to inflammation, fibrosis and necrosis. Most commonly workers exposed to coal dust develop chronic bronchitis. Once the coal dust is in the lungs it is unable to be removed. Black lung was discovered by James C. Gregory when he did an autopsy on a recently deceases patient that had been working in the coal mines. He said, “Both lungs presented one uniform black carbonaceous colour pervading every part of their substance. The right lung was much disorganized, and exhibited in its upper and middle lobes, several large irregular cavities…These cavities contained a good deal of fluid, which, as well as the walls of the cavities, partook of the same black colour. (Smith 1)”. He reported that he suspected this black dust came from the coal mines in which his patient and worked saying “the habitual inhalation of a quantity
Black lung is the legal term used to describe a preventable lung disease that is contracted by prolonged breathing of coal mine dust. Black lung is an occupational disease meaning that it is man-made and preventable. The name black lung comes from the fact that those with the disease have lungs that look black instead of pink. In the medical world it is best known as coal worker’s pneumoconiosis. In haled coal dust progressively builds up in the lungs leading to inflammation, fibrosis and necrosis. Most commonly workers exposed to coal dust develop chronic bronchitis. Once the coal dust is in the lungs it is unable to be removed. Black lung was discovered by James C. Gregory when he did an autopsy on a recently deceases patient that had been working in the coal mines. He said, “Both lungs presented one uniform black carbonaceous colour pervading every part of their substance. The right lung was much disorganized, and exhibited in its upper and middle lobes, several large irregular cavities…These cavities contained a good deal of fluid, which, as well as the walls of the cavities, partook of the same black colour. (Smith 1)”. He reported that he suspected this black dust came from the coal mines in which his patient and worked saying “the habitual inhalation of a quantity
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