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Don't let Covid-19 cover up miners' deaths
The coronavirus pandemic is causing bereaved mining families to lose compensation for death from industrial diseases, says CHRIS KITCHEN, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers
A miner

LUNG diseases are a legacy suffered by tens of thousands of former coal miners as a result of their time working in the industry.

Hard-fought agreements have been won by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to compensate the families of former mineworkers who die from afflictions such as emphysema, bronchitis, pneumoconiosis and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

But the Covid-19 pandemic is leading to compensation being denied to many families, because deaths are being attributed to the virus, rather than to underlying industrial diseases.

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