Although so many were racing to get a position at one of these mass-produced factories, they were extremely dangerous places to be. First of all, some of the processes used to produce these factories release very toxic fumes. This, in addition to very poor ventilation, causes a great deal of illnesses and symptoms such as: spitting up blood, chest pains, coughs, as well as chest diseases. Secondly, occasionally the machines will inflict some type of injury on a worker due to malfunction, zero safety precautions, or human error. Many workers would be burned, have amputated limbs, or even die. This mainly applied to factory workers only, coal miners had even worse dangers to worry about. In coal mines, it wasn’t uncommon for floods or toxic chemicals to be released, as well as explosions. Black lung, a disease contracted by inhaling coal dust that causes scarring of the lung and difficulty breathing, was a pretty big problem during this time. Finally, the working hours were horrific. Hours could get as high as 10-16 hours a day, 6 days a week, with every minute going by doing hard labor and operating dangerous