Miner says he worked for 15 years without an x-ray
TERRY May has worked in coal mines in Collinsville his whole life and retired two years ago.
From 1982 to 2014, Mr May worked at many different open cut coal mines and was at the Parliamentary Inquiry on Monday to hear fellow miners give evidence.
He remembered an era in which workers were often exposed to mine dust.
"I spent 20 odd years on drag lines and someone has to go down and do the ground work. If the wind was blowing the wrong way mate, there was all this silicone (and) acid so fine you would come up covered in it,” he said.
"It got (so) bad at times you would get your hanky out and put it around your nose so you could breathe.”
During the last 15 years Mr May said it had been compulsory for miners to have a medical every five years. "That is all well and good but I did it under a f***ing company doctor (and) I never had one x-ray,” he said.
Acting chair of the inquiry Joe Kelly said black lung had not been diagnosed for 10 years until 2015 and it was impossible to identify with any certainty the reason for this, but "clearly there have been deficiencies in health screening”. He added this could be the reason for the disease not being diagnosed and said that was what the inquiry would try to determine.
