When it comes to compensation programs in the three western provinces, where the bulk of Canada’s active coal miners work, there’s a conspicuous absence of approved black lung cases in that same time period.
NIOSH’s free, confidential screening for black lung to active and former miners in the U.S. is often delivered from commercial trucks converted into state-of-the art mobile “It never went away,” said Laura Reynolds, the West Virginia-based supervisor of NIOSH’s coal worker health surveillance program. “We’re seeing black lung in surface miners, really anywhere there’s coal mining, there’s disease.”
The country’s Institute of Health and Welfare began analyzing death records for former coal miners, and found black lung was far more prevalent than previously thought. Researchers commissioned to update the country’s occupational disease data discovered hospitalizations were growing, and the number of former miners whose deaths were linked to the disease increased from 99 in 2009 to 140 in 2016, according to the government-funded institute.
”Everywhere that mines coal in the United States has black lung. It wouldn’t surprise me if you were to do a comprehensive analysis of the mining workforce in Canada, you’d find similar cases of pneumoconiosis,” he said. If they do try to file a workers’ compensation claim for lung disease, many cases are dismissed outright due to lifestyle or family history, Mr. Taje added.
“It is the duty of employers to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all their workers. We are supportive of employers and workers coming together to discuss workplace hazards and risk mitigation,” said Gladys Wasylenchuk, a spokesperson for the ministry. British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan’s mining regulators all argue cases are low in their provinces because their coal operations are surface mines. But in fact, since NIOSH began including surface miners as part of their health surveillance program in 2014,
Besides their importance to miners for financial reasons, adequate workers compensation programs can give governments statistics to measure the health costs of industries. In this way, compensation claims can often be an indicator of a problem that otherwise goes unseen. There’s solemn monuments to the hundreds of miners who have died on the job, and they still celebrate Davis Day, commemorating a coal miner killed during a 1925 strike against the British Empire Steel Corporation. There’s plenty of pride in that rugged past, with murals, songs and tributes to the toughness of coal men who would work long shifts, then go out on Saturday nights to spend their paycheques at their local drinking hole.
“Every time I see that place, it makes me sick to my stomach,” said Joanne Nearing, whose husband Alonzo Nearing passed away in 2011 from a heart attack.underground as a coal miner, and was collecting compensation from the Workers’ Compensation Board for pneumoconiosis when he died. He was working in his woodshed, building a jewelry box for his wife, when she found him.
“The deck is stacked against miners and their families,” Mr. Nearing said. “Everyone knows it’s impossible, so they don’t even try.” “That’s why I don’t trust the compensation board,” said Mr. Drake, who was also diagnosed with black lung.Mr. Drake, determined not to spend his life underground, quit mining after 17 years and
“My father’s case is representative of the way they treat so many cases. It’s by design. They put up roadblock after roadblock,” Mr. Drake said. “Most people would have given up long before that. But when they quit, the board wins.” With penalties for health and safety violations remaining so small amid such enormous profits, there’s little incentive for mining companies in the U.S. or Canada to clean up their act, said Wes Addington, the director of the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, which advocates for sick and injured coal miners.
Jody Dukart, who represents the United Mine Workers of America’s Canadian branch, and about 1,500 current and retired miners in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Nova Scotia, said a weak regulatory system in Canada has allowed companies to put miners’ health at risk too often.
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