PESHAWAR, Sept 19: Thousands of coal miners in Cherat and Hangu areas are prone to several diseases, including pneumoconiosis, according to pulmonologists.
"Thirteen per cent of the coal mine workers are suffering from pneumoconiosis, which is a disease caused by coal dust that shrinks the lungs and the patient ultimately collapses," said a survey conducted by the Abaseen Foundation in collaboration with the chest ward of the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar.
During the survey 101 symptomatic coal miners were interviewed by a team of doctors, headed by Pulmonologist Dr Mukhtiar Zaman Afridi in Shangla district. The survey report said that around 3,000 people working in coal mines located in Cherat and Hangu areas of the Frontier province, were at the risk of getting pneumoconiosis and other diseases, owing to lack of safety measures.
During the survey, people between the age of 14 to 70 years were examined by the doctors. They conducted their chest X-rays, pulmonary function tests (PFTs) and blood examinations to ascertain the nature of diseases in them.
It said that the workers stopped working on attaining the age of 38 years, because the survey revealed that 95 per cent of them suffered from breath shortness, 78 per cent complained of weight loss, 82 per cent cough, 84 per cent chest pain, 49 per cent fever and 87 per cent felt ill health.
Interestingly, 52 per cent of them were found to be tobacco- users, including 18 per cent cigarette, 67 per cent snuff and nine per cent used tobacco in some other forms. Of them, 47 per cent were involved in cutting, 14 per cent in drilling and 40 per cent labour.
All of them were at the razor's edge, because the level of the coal dust was much higher than the permissible limit of 2mg/m. Moreover, 77 per cent of them were involved in digging of coal, 14 per cent in blasting and nine per cent in both. Blasting of coal was most dangerous, which generated huge dust, the survey said.
Non-scientific methods of coal mining not only posed health hazards, but also resulted in the wastage of coal, because the available resources were not fully exploited.
Pakistan is the second biggest producer of coal after China. After Sindh and Balochistan, the NWFP produced more coal, but the workers faced health problems everywhere in the country.
Only the Hangu area, according to a rough estimate, had more than two million tons of coal deposits of medium quality. The survey report said that the monthly income of the coal mine workers was less than Rs5,000, who had to work for 7 to 12 hours a day. About 93 per cent of the workers, interviewed for the survey said that they were not aware of the hazards associated with their jobs, while seven per cent responded in affirmative.
