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NIOSH Offers Free Health Screenings to All Miners Adapted from Information Provided by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has implemented a program offering a series of free, confidential health screenings to coal miners throughout the United States. The campaign to provide early detection of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), more commonly known as black lung, began in April of this year and utilizes a state-of-the- art NIOSH mobile testing unit at convenient community and mine locations. NIOSH is working in accordance with its Enhanced Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program. The public health outreach is a concentrated effort to battle a well-documented increase in this serious, yet entirely preventable, occupational lung disease, and also in response to new regulations requiring that health screenings be offered to surface miners. The initiative’s first focus launched on April 11 and ended on May 20, in coal mining regions spanning Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The second focus will start the week of August 14 and end on September 9, 2016, in Western Virginia. Both local and individual outreach will be done in specific lo- cations. All coal miners, including current, former, underground, surface, and contract, are encouraged to participate. “We have recently expanded our existing health surveillance program from covering only underground miners to covering surface miners too,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. “NIOSH has developed, staffed, and implemented the coal work- ers’ surveillance program for years and will continue to reach miners throughout the nation in efforts to screen for the early de- tection of black lung.” The screenings will include: k work history questionnaire; k chest radiograph; k respiratory assessment questionnaire; k spirometry testing; k blood pressure testing. The entire process should only take about 30 minutes. NIOSH will provide individual miners with the results of their visit, which will remain confidential as required by law. Participation in the program will give coal miners an easy route to check on their health; a private report disclosing whether or not they have radiographic evidence of CWP; and crucial early-stage detection of chest problems other than black lung. NIOSH has provided additional information about the program at the following website: www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/surveillance/ORDS/ecwhsp.html Questions can also be answered via the toll-free number 1-888-480-4042. The NIOSH mobile testing unit. 2016 NDA Convention )36)0&)4 = -665&74+, %// 2// 4)) 24 8-5-6 1(% 7 '20 *24 024) -1*240%6-21 4)5)16%6-215 62 1'/7() = :3/24-1+ % %7/6 $21) !5-1+ -+, 1+/) 4-//-1+ %1( )23,;5-'5 = 1*-/64%6-21 )56-1+ 4%'6-')5 *24 4))1 62409%6)4 1*4%5647'674) = 62 (0-1-564%6-21 4%15-6-21 29"-// -6 **)'6 ; 75-1)55 = 16)4%'6-8) "24.5,23 73)48-5245 ,) )(42'. 2* #274 %*)6; 7/674) = 16)4%'6-8) "24.5,23 420 $)42 62 24-1+ = 4-//-1+ 9-6, -%021( -65 = 271(6%&/) -5'755-21 4)%6-1+ % %*)6; 7/674) %1 #27 **24( 26 2 2/* 76-1+ 4)5-()16>5 -11)4 9-6, 9%4(5 224 4-<)5 76(224 6%6-' -53/%;5 %41 216-17-1+ (7'%6-21 4)(-65 18 AUGUST 2016 WorldWide Drilling Resource ®