This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

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 central Queensland man, one of four cases this year of pneumoconiosis, a disease previously thought to have been eradicated from the mining industry, still works in a coal-washing facility where he is exposed to dust, according to a union official.

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The shock return of pneumoconiosis among workers in Queensland’s underground coalmines, revealed in state parliament this week by mining minister Anthony Lynham, has blindsided mining companies and prompted the government to threaten closures of mines breaching regulations on dust levels.

Lynham has commissioned an urgent review by Monash University experts of failures in the mining department’s health monitoring system, which have left hundreds of thousands of miners’ X-rays unchecked.

Professor Malcolm Sim, the head of Monash University’s occupational and environmental health research division, told Guardian Australia he would travel to Queensland next Wednesday to confirm terms with the government.

“We’re keen to get that review under way as quickly as possible,” he said.

The mining department has admitted to a national shortage of experts qualified to to detect black lung in X-rays. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) understands there have been no such experts in Queensland for at least 15 years, during which the state’s coal industry boomed.

The union has called for a public inquiry amid suspicions that a 1983 report, in which a former director of industrial medicine identified 75 suspected cases of black lung, was covered up.



The re-emergence of black lung has been linked to exposure in underground mines, of which there were 13 operating in Queensland in 2013-14, according to the mining department.

They were run by some of the industry’s global giants – Anglo American Australia (three), Glencore (three), BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (two), and one each by Peabody Energy, Rio Tinto and Vale, along with Caledon Coal and Ensham Resources.

Stephen Smyth, the Queensland president of the CFMEU, said the crucial first step was to determine how widespread the disease was. Of the four people diagnosed with black lung, three are believed to be still working in the industry and the other is a retired miner whose exposure to dust came some years ago in Ipswich.



Smyth said the union first learned of the disease’s re-emergence around May, when the central Queensland miner was diagnosed.

In 2009, the man was given a clean bill of health after three medical assessments, including a chest X-ray. A US expert this year re-examined the 2009 X-ray.

“He picked up within 30 seconds that this poor bastard actually had the early onset of black lung in 2009, which was not picked up in Queensland,” Smyth said.

“[The company] took him out of the underground and put him up in the wash plant. He obviously needs a permanent job to keep going and he’s still being exposed to dust in the workplace.

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“It is outrageous, really outrageous, that they put him back to work in a dusty place.

“The system failed him. The back-up system of the X-ray being sent to the mines department to be reviewed by expert people failed him because they sat in boxes collecting dust.

“The regulator themselves have failed because they haven’t ensured a safe workplace with dust levels.”

Mining department documents show that in 1983, the former director of industrial medicine, Mannie Rathus, reviewed 7,907 X-rays and of 499 “abnormal” scans found 75 with signs of black lung, the ABC reported. Rathus’s report has never been made public.

Smyth said the previous suspected cases of black lung had “been hidden for a long time”.

“Someone in [the department] or higher up in the bureaucracy must have known about that report for one; secondly, that they didn’t have the appropriate people to read X-rays and the fact they had a backlog of 100,000 X-rays not processed.

“To me it lies squarely at the feet of the regulator [the mining department] and the coal companies and the government. Someone knew about it.”

Smyth said the union would “welcome any government action” on dust levels in underground mines, which he claimed were routinely in breach of the regulations.

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A spokeswoman for BHP said it was “not aware of any current employees that are affected” by black lung.



She said BHP was “working with government authorities to understand more about this issue” but had complied with “all the statutory and regulatory requirements in relation to health checks on our employees”.

A Glencore spokesman declined to comment. Neither Rio Tinto nor Anglo American Australia responded to questions.