ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the impacts of encroaching respiratory disease and the attitudes, coping strategies and agency of disabled workers themselves, as well as the community welfare services operating in the mining areas. The choices available to pneumoconiotic mineworkers were constrained by economic imperatives, and whatever decisions they made, forced upon them, in the decade or so after Second World War, one almost inevitable consequence was erosion in income. The miners' unions and Coal Industry Social and Welfare Organisation (CISWO) were institutionalised elements of the tight-knit mining communities themselves, where much support was organically generated for impaired miners. As with pneumoconiosis, chronic bronchitis and emphysema could have a devastating impact on the lifestyles of those who suffered, resulting in serious physical impairment, and in the worst cases, in relative poverty and social exclusion. The union provided a wide range of legal assistance and advice and guidance, not least through the Lodge Compensation Secretaries, who maintained close contact with disabled members.
