Black lung disease is a chronic pneumonia-like ailment caused by prolonged inhalation of coal dust, and was common among our Scottish coalmining ancestors. Today the disease mainly affects older mine workers, but in the 1800s the coal mines were not as well ventilated, workers often began working at a very young age (some as young as 8 or 9), the hours were long, there was no safety equipment, and the disease developed among many who were relatively young.
The disease turns lung tissue black, instead of a normal, healthy pink. The lungs cannot remove the fine particles of black coal dust so it builds up, causing thickening, scarring, infection, inflammation, and shortage of breath. The scarring and blockage of the lungs can even lead to asthma, emphysema, fibrosis, chronic lung disease or right-sided heart failure.
In 1822 the cause of the black or bloody spitting, coughing, and breathlessness in coal miners was unknown, so doctors used the well-known word "asthma" to identify the condition. It wasn't until 1831 that the term "black lung" was first used to describe the lungs of a Scottish coal miner (from UMWA). Victims often suffered an agonizing death, or years of poor health and difficulty in breathing.
Once
the early stage of the disease develops, its progress can be stopped by
removing the worker from further exposure to dust, but in the 1800s most
Scottish coalminers could not quit working just because they were short
of breath -- their income was needed by their families, and so they continued
to work. Those workers who developed black lung disease at an early
age were at great risk of premature death.
For more information see:
"Black Lung." <http://www.umwa.org/blacklung/blacklung.shtml>
by United Mine Workers of America
"Black lung disease" by Carol A. Turkington from Gale Encyclopedia
of Infection at Health AtoZ
<http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/black_lung_disease.html>
Graphic courtesy of Coalmining History Resource Center, graphics
posted at:
<http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cmhrc/prints.htm>