Published November 1963 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
From the Office of UNITED STATES SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD Room 342, Old Senate Office Building, Washington 25, D. C. Volume III -- Number 46 11-15-63 BYRD' EYE VIEW A Public Service Column by SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD NEW MEDICAL DISCOVERY LOOMS FROM RESEARCH ON COAL An investigation of coal dust which began, paradoxically, as an effort to learn about its role in miners' diseases, has now put scientists on the trail of an entirely new source of antibiotics-- the modern "miracle drugs," such as penicillin, which are performing wonders in protecting us from infectious diseases. The fact that certain kinds of coal dust exert an inhibiting action against bacteria and fungi was discovered by accident several years ago by a British investigator, a geologist who was exploring the connection between coal dust and pneumoconiosis--a disease of the lungs. The geologist noted that a certain dark-brown substance was more than usually abundant in dust from coal pits where miners showed a more than average resistance to disease. It was theorized that the dark-brown substance might have some deterrent effect on bacteria attempting to attack the lungs. The research trail was subsequently taken up by the United States Bureau of Mines at its Pittsburgh laboratory. Although the substance has not yet been identified chemically, it is being extracted from various types of coal and tested on guinea pigs for possible pharmacological development as an antibiotic. The lower ranks of bituminous coal appear to be relatively rich in this substance, while the higher ranks of anthracite are practically devoid of it. Scientists conclude that it must be involved intimately in the process of organic break- down. In attempting to understand the nature of this antibiotic substance, U. S. researchers are studying its probable role in the original formation of coal deposits. Absence of oxygen is generally considered the principal condition that permitted vast layers of vegetable matter to lie in the earth so, many millions of years without undergoing decomposition by microbes. However, Bureau of Mines researchers are now speculating that the presence of a specific antibiotic, or microbe-killing substance, may have helped to preserve coal in its present state. Most of our useful antibiotics, such as penicillin, are manufactured by microbes--usually bacteria or fungi--as a means of self-protection. Whether the antibiotic extract under study was actually formed by microbes, or whether it originated in prehistoric plants no longer in existence, is one of the mysteries being probed. A third possibility is that the coal-forming process itself manufactured an antibiotic from material available in the dead vegetable matter, under the special conditions that obtained in the earth at that time. In any event, the interesting possibility exists that scientists may soon be able to learn from coal how to produce antibiotics synthetically-- once the new substance is identified in the laboratory. Further refinement of the extract may yield a new and powerful ally in the field of medical treatment and prevention of disease. -30-