More hard-rock miners die every year from silicosis than from cave-ins. Silicosis is a degeneration of the lung tissue caused by microscopic rock dust particles.
Last week, grizzled, hard-bitten hard-rock miners came down out of Colorado's Rocky Mountains to Denver to try the latest treatment for the old complaint. At the University of Colorado's School of Medicine they bellied up to a six-foot-high box fitted with nozzles at mouth level. Putting a clamp on their noses and the nozzle in their mouths, they breathed in & out through the tubes. Newcomers started at five minutes every day; veterans stood at the box...
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