When I was a young man, I was both a miner and later an insurance agent. Because I lived in a mining area, many of the claims that I paid out were for miners, and in almost every case respiratory problems were a contributing cause-of-death. I made a point of reading the death certificates.
I thought at the time that blacklung, pneumoconiosis, was as dreadful a death as silicosis, where the lungs are abraded by the stonedust trapped in them, but only a doctor in a mining town would really know.
Powdered stone was spread liberally in the pits to dampen the powdered coaldust, which is flammable enough to be called explosive.

Bone and blood is the price of coal.