canaries in a coal mine

canaries in a coal mine

1. plural of canary in a coal mine
   • 2006, Anthony Marcus, Where Have All the Homeless Gone?: The Making and Unmaking of a Crisis, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page 152:

     The weakest members of society become social barometers or canaries in a coal mine.

   • 2006 July, Steve Fennessy, “Frog Man”, in Atlanta Magazine:

     One of the few animals to live part of its life in water and part on land, frogs are seen by some as canaries in a coal mine — which is why the chytrid fungus has environmentalists worried.

   • 2009, Patricia K. Smith, Obesity Among Poor Americans: Is Public Assistance the Problem?, Vanderbilt University Press, →ISBN, page 13:

     Perhaps public assistance has little to do with obesity among the poor; instead, the poor may simply be canaries in a coal mine, their health suffering from environmental changes before others feel the impact.