If a miner suffered from a chronic condition, such as a respiratory problem, he would hardly be able to partake in any physical activity that the miners' welfare fund provided. Indeed he may not even be able to go to any of the miners' clubs because of the smoky atmosphere.

MELANOSIS OF THE LUNG

Sattributed either to be the effects of blasting with gun powder, or to the inhalation of lamp black, or soot from the oil lamps of the miners

BLACK SPIT AND PHTHISIS MALANATICA

considered that though there was an individual predisposition to the disease, dustiness in certain mines where there was hard dry seams and much pick work took place, was what caused the disease.

DUST IN THE LUNGS. Miners with pneumoconiosis were forced to carry on working until they became extremely ill. They forced to do this because they needed their wages. The Colliery Guardian reported that dust in the lung was first recognized as silicosis. It was a disease commonly found in coal miners and it was realized that it could be coal dust as well as rock dust

NYSTAGMUS

even when the miner is looking at, or below the horizontal level in daylight, or if it still persists for five minutes in good light with the eyes at the horizontal level after it has been induced by darkening the room and using suitable exercises, and they should be certified for compensation.

BURSITIS Chronic bursitis usually produces a slowly enlarging, painless swelling and the patient

Seldom pays much attention to it until some complication occurs. Contusion of a bursa already

Distended with fluid may cause either a sudden increase in swelling, accompanied by pain. When infection occurs there is increased swelling accompanied by redness of the overlying skin and acute pain. In some cases a portion of the sac wall may become calcified and then the pain is likely to be persistent. The greatest sufferer from bursitis is the coal miner.

Coal miner’s knee

Prolonged kneeling, crawling and other stresses placed upon the knees can lead to the development of knee injuries, principally osteoarthritis and damage to the menisci. Many coal miners' jobs involved these activities. Solicitors are currently investigating claims for compensation on behalf of former mineworkers who believe they have suffered knee injury caused by their work.

All of the above are illness the coal miner of yester year and today have to endure most have the right to claim compensation for any of the above.