As many as 1,000 coalminers may have black lung disease, the mining union says.

The potentially fatal disease is caused by the inhalation of coal dust over a long period, and can emerge up to 15 years after exposure.

A coalminer diagnosed with the first case of black lung in Australia in more than 60 years worked in an underground mine for six years after early signs of the disease were missed in a medical examination.

The CFMEU says it is very concerned about a backlog of screening x-rays that have not been properly processed by Queensland’s mines department.

The department last year admitted 150,000 x-rays were still awaiting database entry, the ABC reported.

The CFMEU’s safety and health officer, Jason Hill, said claims that the disease was eradicated 30 years ago thanks to safer mining practices were rubbish.

A 1984 government survey identified 75 confirmed or suspected cases of black lung in Queensland’s coalmining workforce.

The government said their GPs or local hospitals were notified, but the union fears the workers themselves were not.

“I don’t think they were told, otherwise we would have known about it,” Hill told the ABC. “It’s been supposedly eradicated for 30 years, but it hasn’t been eradicated at all. It’s been hidden, covered up – we don’t have the people qualified to do it.”

Queensland coal companies had nominated 265 doctors to supervise health checks for their miners, the ABC said.

But there are concerns local radiologists don’t have the expertise to detect black lung disease.

The Queensland Resources Council said claims of 1,000 black lung cases were without foundation, and amounted to “irresponsible scaremongering”.

“The union is putting fear into thousands of coal workers on what basis? What we really need to do is allow the independent review to do its job,” a spokesman said.