A medical center in Cambria County will help diagnose coal miners with a dangerous disease: coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), also called black lung disease.
Conemaugh Miners Medical Center in Hastings was renamed a Black Lung Screening Site by the U.S. Department of Labor in January.
The center operated as a screening site from 2005 to 2015, before the physician relocated. In that time, the center screened about 600 coal miners.
Respiratory Manager Steve Kutchman grew up in Johnstown and has relatives who suffer from the disease. Other employees at the center have fathers, grandfathers and uncles who worked in the coal mines, too.
“Both of my grandfathers were coal miners and both, ultimately, were diagnosed as having some degree of black lung disease,” said Kutchman.
Black lung disease is a progressive condition caused by coal dust collecting in the lungs.
“It becomes much more difficult for them to breathe. They have a severe limitation and can do very minimal work before they get very out of breath,” Kutchman said.
Doctors said having the screening site back is important because many generations of coal miners still live in the area.
“Coal mines, at one time, were one of the major employers,” Kutchman said.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2017, Pennsylvania made the most claims of any state for Coal Mine Workers’ Compensation for Black Lung Disease. Pennsylvania held the highest record in 2016 and in 2006.
Currently, about 18 percent of all black lung claims nationwide are approved.
According to the Centers for Disease Control National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health:
842 miners who lived in Cambria County were diagnosed with CWP out of 5,667 underground coal miners examined (15 years and older) between 1970 and 2014
3,460 miners who lived in Pennsylvania were diagnosed with CWP out of 31,767 underground coal miners examined (15 years and older) between 1970 and 2014