51-year-old coal miner Long Huaiwen underwent a lung lavage in Xinjiang Occupational Disease Hospital on October 18, which generated 48 bottles of black water, Yaxin.com reports.

The lung lavage took about three and half hours, and used 12,000 ml of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). He has worked as a miner for 16 years.

Pneumoconiosis is a disease of the lungs caused by the habitual inhalation of irritants – such as mineral or metallic particles – often in mines, also called miner's asthma, miner's consumption.

48 bottles of black water washed from miners' lungs

Long and 10 co-workers were able to seek treatment at public expense – which is unusual in the district.

Jiang Xuhong, general manager of the Tiereke Coal Industry Corporation, said the company plans to send 60 miners suffering from – or suspected of being affected by – pneumoconiosis, for lung lavage over the next three years.

Gu Li Nazi, associate professor of occupational medicine at Xinjiang Coalmine General Hospital, said the lung lavage is the most effective way to treat the disease, which is still not curable. If the patients continue to work in the dusty environment, they will need to have the treatment again in another few years.