[UPDATED] Back Lung disease returns & hits 10th Queensland coal miner

Update: A 10th diagnosis was reported on Friday, affecting a 39-year-old former miner who used to work at Bowen Basin in Queensland.

Queensland hosts Australia’s largest coal mine with the approval in 2014 of the $16-billion Carmichael mine. The state is now grappling with a growing number of Black Lung disease diagnoses.

News.com.au reports that the Mines Department confirmed a 62-year-old underground coal miner assigned in the Bowen Basin was diagnosed by an occupational physician with Black Lung Ailment. He is the second case in two days after another 55-year-old miner working in Bowen Basin for 20 years tested positive for the respiratory disease.

That makes the 62-year-old miner the ninth diagnoses since May 2015. The condition, also known as pneumoconiosis, was believed to have been eradicated in Australia 30 years ago, reports Courier Mail. It is caused by years of exposure to coal dust.

Because of the re-emergence of the ailment, coal mine operators are making available voluntary re-screening of underground coal miners. The National Council of Mining Ministers, which meets in later part of July, placed the Black Lung disease on its agenda.

Queensland Mines Minister Anthony Lynham in 2015 ordered an independent inquiry into the Queensland Coal Mine Workers’ Health Scheme. The final report is expected to be submitted this month by Professor Malcolm Sim, head of the investigation and an occupational health physician based at Monash University.

In the meantime, Sim has briefed the state and unions about the findings the past two weeks. He also implemented the interim recommendation for doctors to carry out the assessments as part of the health scheme of coal miners, although according to the minister, the government is seeking different ways to appoint the GPs who would do the assessments.

VIDEO: Coal Dust Exposure & Black Lung Disease