So, to demonstrate how amazing the syndrome system is, I cobbled together this little mod that adds coal dust to bituminous coal and lignite veins. If your miners breathe the coal dust, well, they have a good chance of contracting black lung, a slow-acting and irreversible syndrome!
Just copy the spoilered text into a new text file, inorganic_blacklung.txt, and put it into your raw/objects folder.
inorganic_blacklung
[OBJECT:INORGANIC]
[INORGANIC:LIGNITE_DUST]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:STONE_TEMPLATE]
[STATE_NAME_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:lignite][DISPLAY_COLOR:0:7:1][TILE:'*']
[ENVIRONMENT_SPEC:LIGNITE:CLUSTER_SMALL:5]
[SPEC_HEAT:409]
[IGNITE_POINT:11440]
[MELTING_POINT:NONE]
[BOILING_POINT:8000]
[SOLID_DENSITY:1346]
[MAT_FIXED_TEMP:10000]
[IS_STONE]
[STATE_COLOR:GAS:ASH_GRAY]
[STATE_NAME:GAS:coal dust]
[STATE_NAME:GAS:coal dust]
[SYNDROME]
[SYN_NAME:black lung] I think you can work this one out.
[SYN_AFFECTED_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON] this syndrome affects all creatures with the general_poison class, ie. most of them.
[SYN_INHALED] this syndrome must be inhaled to take effect.
First stage: shortness of breath, chronic cough
[CE_IMPAIR_FUNCTION:SEV:25:PROB:100:VASCULAR_ONLY:BP:BY_CATEGORY:LUNG:ALL:START:5:PEAK:900:END:1000]
[CE_COUGH_BLOOD:SEV:100:PROB:100:RESISTABLE:VASCULAR_ONLY:START:5:PEAK:900:END:1000]
Second stage: lung dysfunction, arthritis, heart damage, dizziness
[CE_NECROSIS:SEV:50:PROB:25:BP:BY_CATEGORY:LUNG:ALL:START:1000:PEAK:2000]
[CE_DIZZINESS:SEV:50:PROB:100:RESISTABLE:START:1000:PEAK:2000]
[CE_PAIN:SEV:75:PROB:100:BP:BY_TOKEN:LIMB:ALL:START:1000:PEAK:2000]
[CE_COUGH_BLOOD:SEV:100:PROB:100:RESISTABLE:VASCULAR_ONLY:START:1000:PEAK:2000]
[CE_IMPAIR_FUNCTION:SEV:80:PROB:100:BP:BY_CATEGORY:HEART:ALL:START:1000:PEAK:2000]
[CE_IMPAIR_FUNCTION:SEV:80:PROB:100:RESISTABLE:VASCULAR_ONLY:BP:BY_CATEGORY:LUNG:ALL:START:1000:PEAK:2000]
[INORGANIC:COAL_BITUMINOUS_DUST]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:STONE_TEMPLATE]
[STATE_NAME_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:bituminous coal][DISPLAY_COLOR:0:7:1][TILE:15]
[ENVIRONMENT_SPEC:COAL_BITUMINOUS:CLUSTER_SMALL:5]
[ITEM_SYMBOL:15]
[SPEC_HEAT:409]
[IGNITE_POINT:11440]
[MELTING_POINT:NONE]
[BOILING_POINT:8000]
[SOLID_DENSITY:1346]
[MAT_FIXED_TEMP:10000]
[IS_STONE]
[STATE_COLOR:GAS:ASH_GRAY]
[STATE_NAME:GAS:coal dust]
[STATE_NAME:GAS:coal dust]
[SYNDROME]
[SYN_NAME:black lung] I think you can work this one out.
[SYN_AFFECTED_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON] this syndrome affects all creatures with the general_poison class, ie. most of them.
[SYN_INHALED] this syndrome must be inhaled to take effect.
First stage: shortness of breath, chronic cough
[CE_IMPAIR_FUNCTION:SEV:10:PROB:100:VASCULAR_ONLY:BP:BY_CATEGORY:LUNG:ALL:START:5:PEAK:900:END:1000]
[CE_COUGH_BLOOD:SEV:100:PROB:100:RESISTABLE:VASCULAR_ONLY:START:5:PEAK:900:END:1000]
Second stage: lung dysfunction, arthritis, heart damage, dizziness
[CE_NECROSIS:SEV:20:PROB:25:BP:BY_CATEGORY:LUNG:ALL:START:1000:PEAK:2000]
[CE_DIZZINESS:SEV:50:PROB:100:RESISTABLE:START:1000:PEAK:2000]
[CE_PAIN:SEV:75:PROB:100:BP:BY_TOKEN:LIMB:ALL:START:1000:PEAK:2000]
[CE_COUGH_BLOOD:SEV:100:PROB:100:RESISTABLE:VASCULAR_ONLY:START:1000:PEAK:2000]
[CE_IMPAIR_FUNCTION:SEV:20:PROB:100:BP:BY_CATEGORY:HEART:ALL:START:1000:PEAK:2000]
[CE_IMPAIR_FUNCTION:SEV:20:PROB:100:RESISTABLE:VASCULAR_ONLY:BP:BY_CATEGORY:LUNG:ALL:START:1000:PEAK:2000]
This could conceivably be used to represent anything from gas pockets (with a high temp, so it causes burning!) to asbestase to radiation poisoning, if you've got a scifi bent.