Occupational Health

Eighteen miners who claimed they contracted deadly silicosis working at an Anglo American gold mine in South Africa slapped the firm with a class action lawsuit on Thursday, lawyers said.

Thousands of ex-gold miners suffering from silicosis have launched a class action suit in South Africa, in what could prove the final nail in the coffin of the country's battered but vital mining sector.

A top researcher and campaigner on industrial health issues has refused France's highest honour in protest at official inaction over what she described as "industrial crimes" in this sector.

Injured midfielder Blaise Matuidi is a doubt for France's Euro 2012 quarter-final against holders Spain in Donetsk on Saturday, coach Laurent Blanc revealed on Wednesday.

South Africa on Saturday launched a plan to diagnose tuberculosis in the country's gold mines, where the disease's incidence is the highest in the world.

French presidential frontrunner Francois Hollande was targeted in a flour-throwing attack Wednesday as he wrapped up a speech about housing problems.

Mongezi Mponco left his village of grassland hills as one of hundreds of thousands of healthy young black men who poured into the deep underground of South Africa's gold mines.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A lawyer for hundreds of former South African gold miners accused their ex-employers on Wednesday of failing to provide access to regular check-ups for silicosis, an incurable lung disease caused by inhaling dust.

Suman Howlader was thrilled to land a job in a Bangladeshi factory sandblasting new jeans to make them look old, but he now believes the diktats of fashion have exacted a heavy toll on his health.

South African gold miners suffering from a lung disease are suing the local subsidiary of Anglo American in London, potentially for hundreds of millions of pounds, lawyers said Wednesday.

DENVER (Reuters) - A grand jury has indicted a Colorado man for stealing more than $3.5 million from health care programs aimed at compensating injured nuclear industry workers in at least three western states, federal authorities said on Thursday.

DENVER (Reuters) - A rural Colorado company pleaded guilty in federal court in Denver on Friday to violating workplace laws in the death of a 17 year-old boy who suffocated after he was sucked under flowing grain while cleaning a bin.

DENVER (Reuters) - A rural Colorado company pleaded guilty in federal court in Denver on Friday to violating workplace laws in the death of a 17-year-old boy who suffocated after he was sucked into a bin being filled with grain.

Versace voiced its support on Thursday for a campaign to stop the sandblasting of jeans -- a practice used mainly in the developing world and widely condemned as dangerous for workers' health.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Black lung disease, long a killer of coal miners, is on the rise again after retreating in the 30 years since Congress passed tougher mine safety laws, health and safety experts said on Friday.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Work-related deaths in Alaska, led by commercial fishing accidents and plane crashes, have declined sharply over the past two decades, due in large part to heightened safety efforts, a state health report found.

There is still much more work to be done to protect America's workers. Forty years ago this week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration came into existence with the daunting task of protecting America's workers.Before OSHA, workplace safety was governed by a hodgepodge of state and federal laws, which didn't serve the nation well. The federal law brought much-needed uniformity to the oversight of safety, and in the decades since, the nation has seen many improvements. The annual number of workplace deaths has dropped dramatically. In 1970, there were nearly 14,000 workplace deaths in the United States. In 2009, the latest year for which numbers are available, the total was 4,340.

China, which saw more than 2,400 deaths in colliery accidents last year, on Friday agreed to swap health and safety experiences with the United States in a bid to improve conditions for miners.

Refrigerator thrown from balcony kills construction worker in Milwaukee. Police say a man was killed when a refrigerator thrown from an upper floor of a building in Milwaukee hit him.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Miners, railway workers and others with years of on-the-job exposure to diesel exhaust may have a heightened risk of developing lung cancer, a new research analysis suggests.