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LAFOLLETTE PRESS Thursday, October 17, 2013

SPRINKLE COAL DUST ON MY GRAVE

Jacksboro Black Lung Clinic is the final locale in Tennessee

he official name in textbooks is

Coal workers pneumoconiosis, but
nobody calls it that. Its just called
black lung the result of prolonged
exposure to coal dust, via mining.
The symptoms can be straight-forward
chronic cough and shortness of breath,
though those symptoms can also be attributed to other conditions such as long-term
smoking.
During coal minings infancy, nobody
knew what made some miners so sick after
working in the mines. When the medical
community began to understand the illness
was the result of coal dust exposure, clinics
began springing up in coal mining regions,
including here in Campbell County. At one
time, there were several clinics in Tennessee
including locations in Oak Ridge, Johnson
City and Grundy County.
The black lung clinic in Jacksboro is
the final one in the state, according to
Community Health of East Tennessee CEO
Teresa Dabney.
CHET actually began as a black lung clinic
and later branched out to provide services
for general health care, domestic violence
victims and perform other community outreach. Because CHETs clinic is the lone
black lung treatment facility in the area, its
workers stay busy with visitors from not only
Tennessee, but from as far away as Alabama Ron Helton shows how easily some coal will crumble.
and Harlan County, Ky.
The clinic works to connect miners who
CHETs clinic assisted 310 miners during the 2011-2012 year, performed 88
believe they have black lung with the appropriate resources to be tested and
department of labor exams and filed 78 applications for benefits.
then signed up for benefits.
Increasingly, younger miners are coming to the clinic.
Workers in the clinic help the miners file paperwork and schedule a departIt used to be an old mans disease but no longer is, said Dabney.
ment of labor examination. The exam can be done in the CHET office, which
The surge in younger miners comes from the fact that coal mining is picking
prevents the miner from having to travel long distances to several different
back up in some cases, but education also means the workers are more attuned
providers.
to changes in their breathing and the risk of contracting black lung.
During the examination, Shan Ray, the clinics chief operating officer, will
The youngest miner to ever come into the CHET office and apply for black
do the breathing test, blood gas tests and an EKG. The examination will also
lung benefits was in his 30s, Dabney said.
include an X-ray, which is sent to West Virginia to be read by a specialist who
The miners they see also vary in age and education. Some of them can barely
can identify if lung scarring is the result of black lung or long-term smoking.
sign their names. Others are college-educated. Theyve held a variety of jobs in
Eventually, the department of labor determines whether or not a miner is
the mining industry, including working underground, in strip pits and even
eligible for black lung benefits, which include treatment.
driving a truck.
Black lung can be treated, but not cured. Instead, pulmonary rehabilitation
Anyone who would like more information about the black lung clinic may call
will help with the quality of life and help the miners breathe more efficiently
563-1012.
despite scarred lung tissue.

ONLY A MINER KILLED IN THE GROUND

Rescue miners train to walk into danger

(Above) The mine rescue team works through an obstacle in the yard at the mine office in Jacksboro. Two teams train monthly to respond to a
disaster.(Below) Oscar Frederick supervises training during the exercise.

n an early Friday morning, the mine rescue

team is gathered with Oscar Frederick at
the mine safety office. Not only is the exercise training, its also practice for upcoming
mine safety competitions.
In the yard outside, stakes are sticking from the
ground with twine lining paths that simulate the corridors in a mine. Cardboard obstacles lay on the
ground to tell the miners what they are up against as
they work through the scenario.
The mine rescue team is a completely voluntary
organization that meets once a month for training. The
mining company releases the men from work for the
day. The state pays their wages for the training.
Frederick walks the team through the days scenario
theres been a collapse and there is one miner to
rescue. They have an hour to secure the mine, ensure
it is properly vented, and bring the injured miner back
out.
To make sure the men are communicating properly,
one man will sit with his back to the exercise and
hes in constant communication with the leader of the
team. The goal is for the two men to have drawn the
exact same map of the inside of the mine. At competition, its for points. In a real rescue, it could be the dif-

ference in life or death.

This is a dress rehearsal each man is carrying a
30-pound air pack and wearing a mask. Theyre also
tethered together by rope and carabiner clips. Not getting tangled is the result of lots of practice, Frederick
said.
Frederick, the mine rescue director, was underground himself for 22 years. He began working rescue
in 1997 and now trains new teams of men. Frederick,
who holds a bachelors degree in biology from Lincoln
Memorial University in Harrogage, became a coal
miner like his father.
He was always amazed by the intricacies found
underground the fossils, the signs of life before coal
mining cut into the mountain.
If man had ever been in that location, it was how
many million years before you were next? he asked.
Coal mining aint just coal mining.
Thankfully, his teams services are rarely needed.
There have been no explosions recently, and when
his team is needed, its typically at the zinc mine in
Strawberry Plains. The coal companies are more careful, he said.
They take more precautions cause they know what
could happen.