black lung
5
6.7
- noun
- /blæk lʌŋ/
- Specialized
:
pulmón negro
- It takes years for coal miners to develop black lung or for asbestos workers to get lung cancer.
- black lung disease
- miners with black lung
- get black lung
Examples
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A coal miner dies from black lung disease every day.
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An estimated one million Chinese have already died of black lung and up to 10 million currently suffer from it.
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An estimated one million Chinese have already died of black lung and up to 10 million currently suffer from it.
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Black lung is a disease caused by breathing coal dust.
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From 1968 through 2007, black lung led to some 75,000 deaths in the United States.
Blog text (6) -
From 1890 to 1970, four hundred thousand coal miners died for their companies due to black lung.
Academic text (2004) -
Wishful thinking in Congress also produced dramatic increases in payments under particular programs, like the compensation system for coal miners suffering from black lung disease.
Academic text (1990) -
The reason why so many people living in coal country are receiving disability payments is likely due to black lung; black lung is so pervasive for coal miners that there is a special benefits hearing board.
Blog text (6) -
An epidemic of severe and rapidly progressive black lung disease is emerging among coal miners in Appalachia.
Synonyms
1
3.7
A serious lung illness caused by breathing coal dust over many years, often in miners
1
6.2
A lung disease that comes from breathing coal dust for a long time
1
9.9
A long-term lung disease caused by breathing in dust at work
A lung disease from breathing in coal dust over a long time
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'black lung' is largely compositional: a learner who knows 'black' and 'lung' can infer lungs darkened by soot or smoke and therefore likely related to an illness of the lungs. However, the precise conventional medical sense — a specific occupational disease caused by prolonged coal-dust inhalation affecting miners — requires cultural/medical knowledge beyond the literal words, so the meaning is only partially predictable.
Etymology
The term black lung comes from miners' lungs that turned black with coal dust after many years working in the mines. So black lung means the 'disease' caused by breathing in coal dust.