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The health hazards of coal mining are many, but lung diseases caused by inhaling coal dust are the most common among miners and people living in the vicinity of mines, experts say. Pneumoconiosis, or dusty lungs, a result of regular exposure to airborne respirable dust, affects most miners. “In layman terms, it is called black lungs. Since miners inhale coal dust continuously, it gets deposited on the lungs over the years and the lungs appear black in colour. Miners also suffer from a condition called silicosis, which is the buildup of silica in lungs, leading to the scarring of lung tissues,” says Dr GC Khilnani, former head of the pulmonary and sleep medicine department at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.