This is a recording of Appalachian historian Barbara Ellen Smith’s 1981 article, “Black Lung: The Social Production of Disease.” It describes the history of black lung as a medical diagnosis and an occupational disease, and places decades of medical denial and dismissal of black lung in the context of the labor and class relations of twentieth-century West Virginian coal camps. Smith’s account ends with the successful worker-led effort to create a federal black lung benefits program, and contends that these efforts hinged in part on a radical redefinition of the disease itself. Read the full article online (jstor; drive).
Although it seems difficult to imagine now, for decades, coal miners who complained of respiratory problems after years of unsafe exposure to coal and rock dust were diagnosed with ‘fear of the mines’ or accused of malingering. Black lung was comparatively difficult to diagnose from an X-ray, and nearly all medical care available in the coalfields was provided by company doctors, who were incentivized to ignore or downplay the clear hazards of the mines. Only aggressive labor action, including a period of repeated UMW strikes during World War II, ended this approach to coal-related dust disease. The black lung movement offers valuable insight into how workers have responded to insidious workplace safety issues, a topic with obvious present force.
the united states is funding a $1.6 million study on vaccine side effects in guinea-bissau that studies a vaccine not available in the american market by withholding hepatitis b vaccine (recommended for all newborns by WHO since 2009, demonstrated to be safe & effective at preventing hep b infection & subsequent chronic liver disease) without first testing all participating mothers for hep b infection, functionally ensuring that hundreds of children will be needlessly infected. the study seeks to assess nonspecific vaccine side effects and was awarded to an irregular single-source funding bid. GAVI, a global organization that supports vaccine access, has already committed to funding natal hep b vaccinations in guinea-bissau beginning in 2027; the us loudly & proudly withdrew support from GAVI last year. $1.6 million would fund hepatitis b vaccines for all guinean infants for a decade.
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. Maybe many of us won’t be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing.”
literally what the fuck do you mean its still january. how is that remotely possible. its been six months minimum
The author is Kaveh Akbar, and this poem, “Wild Pear Tree,” is from his 2017 book, Calling a Wolf a Wolf. Here is a 2018 interview with him, “A Conversation With Kaveh Akbar.”
it’s been January for months in both directions frost over grass like pale fungus like mothdust the branches of the pear tree are pickling in ice white as the long white line running from me to the smooth whales frozen in chunks of ocean from their vast bobbing to the blackwhite stars flowering into heaven the hungry cat gnaws on a sliver of mirror and I have been chewing out my stitches wondering which warm names we should try singing wild thyme cowslip blacksnake all the days in a year line up at the door and I deflect each saying no you will not be needed one by one they skulk off into the cold the cat hates this place more than he loves me he cannot remember the spring when I fed him warm duck fat daily nor the kitchen vase filled with musky blue roses nor the pear tree which was so eager to toss its fruit so sweet it made us sleepy I stacked the pears on the mantle until I ran out of the room and began filling them into the bathtub one evening I slid in as if into a mound of jewels now ghost finches leave footprints on our snowy windowsills the cat paces through the night listening for their chirps our memories have frosted over ages ago we guzzled all the rosewater in the vase still we check for it nightly I have forgotten even the easy prayer I was supposed to use in emergencies something something I was not born here I was not born here I was not
tagged as #occupational health #black lung #medical history #i am back on my bullshit (yelling about black lung) #or at least recording academic articles about it haha! #barbara ellen smith has a very good book called 'digging our own graves'; the updated edition came out in 2020 & i'm reading it rn #there are no gory medical details in this one it's mostly about the production of medical knowledge #SoundCloud
