MINE DUST DISEASE AT HEART OF RESEARCH

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dust disease @ The Coalface

The University of Queensland (UQ) is undertaking a three-year research project investigating miners returning to the workplace after being diagnosed with early-stage dust lung disease.

The University has been granted $600,000 from the Miles Government to undertake research that will involve interviewing several people in the industry to determine what workers in mining and the stone industry should do after they have been diagnosed.

Mine dust lung diseases (MDLD) are caused by long-term exposure to high concentrations of respirable dust, generated during mining activities. Since 1984, 541 cases of MDLD have been reported to Resources Safety & Health Queensland. In the last financial year in Queensland there were five reported cases of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, 19 MDLD cases, and two cancer cases.

UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute Research Fellow Nikky LaBranche said they are grateful for the funding to they can continue to investigate ways to support people with lung disease.

“An important piece of this work will be talking with workers, return-to-work coordinators, occupational physicians, regulators, and others to find out what is working and not working from their perspective.

“A total of 120 interviews are planned to get a range of inputs and insights into how the current system is operating in practice and where those involved see potential for improvement and opportunities to share things working well more widely.

“The type of industry that the workers are in can potentially play a factor in the nature of the return-to-work options.”

Nikky said for those in the mining industry there are a lot of ways workers can stay at the mine, but it might be in a more administrative role – which can work well, or not so great.

“Many of these workers chose a trade because they want to be out working with their hands, not sitting at a desk or behind a computer all day.

“In addition, to the gap analysis we’ve included an alternative work analysis which will be looking to see if there are any obvious places that would be suitable from a low-dust perspective for people as they leave the industry.

“There is also a psychological component that comes with being diagnosed with a potentially life-changing disease,” said Nikky.

Plenty of research has been conducted on lung disease in Queensland including UQ’s collaborations with the University of Chicago, i-Med Queensland and the University of NSW who are progressing work on earlier detection of the disease, the effectiveness of screening methods and understanding the progression of dust diseases including pneumoconiosis.

Minister for Industrial Relations Grace Grace said sadly these diseases can be fatal, so the more they can do the better.

“There is hope through early detection – workers with early stages of a dust disease have a strong potential to return to work, and businesses need to make sure they return to a safe environment with no continued exposure.

“That’s why we committed at the election to fund research to help prevent these diseases, to pick them up earlier in affected workers, and to find more effective treatments.”

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