Батыс Вирджиниядағы силикоз трагедиясы: Хоукс Нест туннелі апаты

Tunnel in West Virginia where hundreds of workers contracted silicosis

The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster was a large scale incident of occupational lung disease in the 1930s as the result of the construction of the Hawks Nest Tunnel near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, as part of a hydroelectric project. This project is considered to be one of the worst industrial disasters in American history.

Kanawha and New River Power Company, a subsidiary of Union Carbide, diverted the New River to increase power generation at a plant in Alloy, West Virginia. Beginning in March of 1930, its contractor Rinehart & Dennis began construction of the 3 mile (5 km) tunnel carrying the river under Gauley Mountain. A dam was constructed immediately below Hawks Nest to divert most of the New River flow into the tunnel. It then re enters the river near Gauley Bridge leaving a section known as "the Dries" in between.

Facing widespread unemployment during the Great Depression, about three thousand men, three quarters of whom were black, came to West Virginia to dig the tunnel. They worked ten to fifteen hour shifts, using drills and dynamite to mine the sandstone, which was composed primarily of cemented quartz (silica) sand. The workers completed the project more than twice as quickly as original projections. They were not given any masks or breathing equipment to use while mining, although management wore such equipment during inspection visits. Black workers told Congress in 1936 that they were denied breaks and even forced to work at gunpoint. Other sources range from 700 to over 1,000 deaths amongst the 3,000 workers. Many of the workers at the site were African Americans from the southern United States who returned home or left the region after becoming sick, making it difficult to calculate an accurate total.