Uranium mining is hazardous.
In addition to the usual risks of mining, uranium miners worldwide have experienced a much higher incidence of lung cancer and other lung diseases. Several studies have also indicated an increased incidence of skin cancer, stomach cancer and kidney disease among uranium miners. For four centuries, beginning in 1546, it was reported that most underground miners in Schneeburg, Germany, died from mysterious lung ailments. In 1879 it was shown that up to three quarters of them were dying of lung cancer, and many of other lung diseases. By 1930, the same grim statistics were found among miners in Joachimsthal, Czechoslovakia, on the other side of the same mountain range.