Coal miners have faced strident opposition from doctors, coal operators, and even their own union (the UMWA) in the fight for recognition of the harm caused by working in mines. Barbara Ellen Smith traces the movement from early conceptions of black lung in the late 1800s all the way up to the present (the book was recently revised in 2020), with a particular focus on the post-WWII period.
scientific/technologic/laboratory medicine vs the more patient oriented practice of the mid/late 1800s, the latter had an understanding of mining related illness based on simply observing and listening to patients which the former could not so easily reduce to its own "rationalized" models
X-rays as the primary diagnostic criteria, frequent source of contention in compensation claims
UMWA president John L Lewis 1920s-1960s, ruthless politician who dominated the union, saw unionization as a means of normalizing relations between labor and capital and was willing to sacrifice more radical rank-and-file demands in order to maintain that
federal gov nationalized the mines four times over the course of WWII in response to strikes (related: railroad nationalization during WWI)
Britain nationalized its mines in 1948
mechanization allows for slashing labor costs, demands increased specialization, critical bridge between craft and industrial modes of labor
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[...] by 1967, miners able to meet the eligibility requirements for a pension received $115 per month, or $1380 per year; UMWA Tony Boyle and other officials enjoyed a separate pension fund, supported by union dues, that guaranteed the president a retirement income of $50000 per year for life.
Tony Boyle challenged by Jock Yablonski, Yablonski and his family later murdered the day after Nixon signed the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act
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In a broader sense, from the first moment that miners formulated their goal in terms of existing political alternatives - workers' compensation coverage of black lung disease - they began a relationship with the established processes of reform that gradually and subtly redefined the target of their anger, the goal of their activism, and the political meaning of their discontent
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respirable dust levels can be reduced buy increasing ventilation placing water sprays on equipment, and monitoring the results through regular air sampling. These activities are, of course, essential preventive measures; the point is that, unless they recognize the human beings whose power, interests, and actions determine actual conditions in the workplace, they are empty prescriptions.