China copper smelters plan to cut output after margins fall
The output cuts underscore the industry’s struggle with a shortage of feedstocks caused by recent mine production setbacks.
A disease all-too-familiar to early coal miners from Europe and North America has found its way to China- where technology for making coalmining safer is still decades behind the West.
But hope for Chinese miners afflicted with black lung disease has come with the Black-Lung Disease Rehabilitation Center, reports AsiaOne News, where workers’ lungs are flushed:
Workers exposed to dust in coal mines, potteries and gemstone factories run an increased risk of contracting the disease, which has a high fatality rate. Workers inhale large quantities of ash that remain in the lungs and can cause extensive scarring and fibrosis many years later.
The story notes that black lung disease is a much bigger cause of coalmining deaths in China than explosions and cave-ins:
… Data from a National Conference on Coal Mine Black Lung Disease show that 2.65 million people work in China’s coal mines. All are regularly exposed to dust particles and approximately 57,000 contract black lung disease every year, resulting in a death toll of about 6,000, twice the number caused by production accidents.
MINING.com reported recently on a little-know section of US President Obama’s Affordable Care Act that expands benefits for victims of black lung:
“The Black Lung Benefits Act has been amended so that a widow is automatically entitled to benefits if the miner had been awarded benefits at the time of his death,” according to a summary of the law written by Roger Belcher, District Director at the U.S. Department of Labor.
Comments
James Guertin
I bet this is one “starred” medical record of all the hospitals today. Maintaining one’s name and reputation can also be an advantage of EMR. It only means that you have managed the hospital and handled your patients very well… Consider this as a standpoint for all existing and potential hospital organizations in our day.