Promising start to 2025

Dust disease numbers moderating in the latest black lung data

It’s been a promising start for 2025 in the battle against dust-related lung disease with just four new cases of silicosis, one new case of mixed dust pneumoconiosis, and no new cases of Black Lung (coal workers pneumoconiosis) in the three months until the end of February.

However, the issue of dust disease in miners remains a critical one, with 637 miners now diagnosed with mixed dust lung diseases and 78 with the potentially fatal Black Lung. Eighteen of those with Black Lung have progressed to the most severe category of progressive massive fibrosis (PMF).

Since the discovery of the disease in 2015, it’s become apparent that while miners working underground in coal mines are most at risk, considerable risks also exist for miners working above ground in coal and other sectors.

Earlier this year, the state’s mining regulator, Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ), warned generation-x miners that while twenty per cent of all miners diagnosed with a mine dust lung disease are under 55 years of age, only six per cent of the former workers accessing RSHQ’s free lung checks are younger than 55.