3 ms·

Not really comparable given the delayed effects of black lung as opposed to a burn from a coal dust fire.

• pluma 8y ago
  To clarify, the injuries were not always related to the coal itself. There were a lot of heavy machinery and unstable tunnels, i.e. amputations, crushing and disfigurement. The area has a history of coal mining that goes back for almost a thousand years. However I'm pretty sure the goal for reconstructive surgery wasn't entirely altruistic: e.g. a disabled worker is a non-worker but with some prosthetics he might still be able to do light work. That said, I'd strongly believe the culture created by a centuries long tradition of coal mining in a single region is very different from that of 20th/21st century mining in the US.