I am just a hobbyist but spent some 30 years in one or another jobs in mining (about 12 years as a day’s pay miner and the rest in supervision and middle management - personnel). From the time I was growing up in a mining town, I’ve been fascinated by geology, mineralogy and in the last two decades, plate tectonic theory). It’s better than a football game to me and things are being discovered or contradicted at dizzying pace.
Mining geology is fascinating! I once hired a mining geologist to do a report in answer to bogus claims about levels of surface radiation from some particular maroon soil and claims that small amounts of surface uranium tailings were hazardous for several miles (mine that didn’t yield nearly enough for profitable radium production). I’m rather financially poor but had the study done for a small, low-cost property concern for myself and neighbors against some evil real estate speculators. The surface radiation count showed safe soil, and water tested fine.
It’s radon gas from fast decay that, in the past, hurt mainly miners who smoked, not to mention the hazard from inhaling dust in general for miners. Drinking and bathing water for residents only needs to be decayed out with aeration before use (only about 3-4 minutes for adequate decay from a bathtub of water through an open window or vent, or a fountain in a vented cistern before input to a house).
I worked to make steel products for a few years in my youth, by the way. The problem was called blue lung instead of black lung in steel work, and there was no appreciable uranium involved (only carbon and other materials in the dust and smoke). We finished our shifts covered with black dust.