• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
appalachian citizens law center logo

Appalachian Citizens' Law Center

We Fight for Justice in the Coalfields

  • Who We Are
    • About Us
    • Staff & Board
    • Internships & Fellowships
    • Job Openings
    • Contact
    • Financials
  • What We Do
    • Environmental Justice
    • Miners’ Health & Safety
    • Policy & Research
    • Advocacy
  • Get Help
    • Federal Black Lung Benefits
    • Black Lung Associations
    • Environmental Problems
    • Mine Safety Discrimination
  • Take Action
  • News
  • DONATE

Lexington Herald Leader: After Decades of Decline, Black Lung on Rise in Eastern Kentucky

July 8, 2013 Black Lung

By Bill Estep and John Cheves

Congress intended to eradicate the disease known as black lung with a landmark 1969 law that limited underground coal miners’ exposure to dust.
Roger Cook can tell you that didn’t happen, but only if he pauses mid-sentence to take a labored breath.
Cook, 57, has black lung even though he started his 32 years as an underground miner in 1978, well after the new standards were put in place. He is among a growing number of Eastern Kentucky miners afflicted in recent years with black lung, reversing a decades-long decline of the torturous, incurable disease.
The Letcher County man had to quit the mining job he loved in April 2010 when he was diagnosed with black lung, which scars the lungs, impairs breathing and often leads to premature death.
Cook now relies on an oxygen tank to help him breathe 24 hours a day, and he still gets short of breath even while sitting. He once was an avid hunter and fisherman, but about the best he can do these days is pull close in his pickup truck to watch his grandchildren fish.
“I won’t last that long if I don’t get a transplant,” Cook said.
Breathing coal and rock dust at coal mines can cause various lung ailments, including black lung — the common term for coal workers’ pneumoconiosis — and silicosis.
Black lung has been the underlying or contributing cause of death of more than 76,000 miners since 1968, according to figures from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. That total does not include deaths from silicosis, which is caused by breathing dust from rocks such as sandstone.
Before the 1969 mine safety act, more than 40 percent of longtime miners in some regions of the United States got black lung, according to NIOSH data. Overall, 11.2 percent of underground coal miners screened for black lung from 1970 to 1974 had the disease.
Prevalence of black lung declined steadily for several decades, dropping to 2 percent in screenings conducted from 1995 to 1999, NIOSH said in a May 2011 report. Then, mysteriously, black lung rebounded. Screenings in 2005 and 2006 found the disease in 3.3 percent of surveyed miners.

In addition, NIOSH has documented that miners are developing advanced cases of lung disease at younger ages, and that there has been a bigger surge of black lung among miners in Central Appalachia than elsewhere.
In Eastern Kentucky, 9 percent of the miners screened in one NIOSH program between 2005 and 2009 had black lung. It was the highest prevalence of any state.
Dr. Edward Petsonk of West Virginia University, who has treated black-lung victims and has conducted extensive research on the disease, said the increase is troubling.
“I was knocked off my chair,” Petsonk said of when he first saw studies documenting the increase.
NIOSH has identified a number of possible reasons for the black lung resurgence, including routine work shifts of 10 to 12 hours for miners; increased mining of thinner coal seams in Central Appalachia, which requires cutting through more rock; inadequate dust-control rules; and failure by coal companies to comply with the rules.
Safety advocates and miners also lay blame on companies that cheat on the dust samples they are required to submit to federal regulators, although they say that problem was worse in the past.
In 1991, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration cited more than 840 coal companies for alleged cheating on dust sampling during a widespread investigation. Of those, 301 mines were in Kentucky, the most of any state.
That didn’t stop the problem, according to former miners and attorneys who handle miners’ black-lung claims. They tell stories of companies recording fraudulent dust levels by hanging monitors in the clean-air intake, covering monitors with cloth, and even putting them inside lunch buckets.
“There was a lot of ’em did that,” former Pike county miner Robert Compton, 60, said of cheating by companies. Compton has black lung after working 34 years as an underground miner.
In its May 2011 study, NIOSH used data from coal companies’ dust samples to predict the prevalence of black lung, then compared the predictions to the X-rays of more than 12,000 miners.
The prevalence of black lung was four times higher than predicted in Eastern Kentucky, the report said. Other regions of the country did not show a similar gap.
The National Mining Association is not aware of cheating by coal operators, and it should not be happening, senior vice president Bruce Watzman said.
The association’s position is simple, he said: “Operators are expected to comply with the law and the regulations.”
Mine safety advocates argue that coal companies often fall short on other regulations that can affect a miner’s lungs. They include maintaining proper ventilation in underground mines and complying with safety precautions to keep down dust, such as spraying water from mining machines.
In the 12 months ending March 1, MSHA issued 146 citations for excessive dust in underground mines, and 339 for failing to submit ventilation plans.
In May, MSHA shut down a Floyd County mine for more than three weeks after finding numerous safety violations, including mining without required dust controls. Inspectors found no air movement and floating dust.
“As a whole in the industry, ventilation is a joke in underground mines,” said lawyer Timothy C. Bailey of Charleston, W.Va., who represents miners in black-lung cases.
MSHA chief Joseph A. Main has said current rules are not adequate to protect miners. For instance: miners wear dust monitors for only eight hours, even though they might work longer shifts; companies can slow production to generate less dust when dust samples are taken; and MSHA uses an average of five samples to gauge compliance.
The agency has proposed a number of changes, including lowering the limit on miners’ exposure to coal and silica dust; requiring miners to wear personal monitors to provide real-time dust readings; using a single, full-shift sample to measure compliance; and keeping production closer to normal levels while sampling.
The coal industry opposes the changes.
The National Mining Association argues that the spike in coal miners’ lung disease is limited to Central Appalachia and doesn’t justify an industry-wide rule change. The association argues that the real culprit is increased exposure to higher levels of silica from sandstone and other rocks, and that MSHA should focus on fixing that problem at the regional level.
However, Petsonk said exposure to silica is not solely to blame for the increase in lung disease among miners, nor is the problem unique to Central Appalachia.
“There are miners getting black lung in virtually every mining state,” Petsonk said.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/07/06/2705218/after-decades-of-decline-black.html#storylink=cpy

Footer

Appalachian Citizens' Law Center

317 Main St, Whitesburg, KY 41858

(877) 637-3929 Toll Free

(606) 633-3929

© Addison Williams Hero Image

Recent Posts

  • Amid Chaos Caused by Funding Cuts, Layoffs, and Policy Rollbacks, Appalachian Leaders Release Appropriations Priorities for Congress
  • Assault on Coal Miners Continues as MSHA Halts Enforcement of Life-Saving Silica Dust Safeguard
  • ANNOUNCEMENT: ACLC Welcomes Caroline Rubens As New Fundraising Officer
  • Our statement on the dismantling of the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety
  • Advocates Call on Congress to Make Sure Coal Companies Don’t Skip Out on Black Lung Responsibilities

Recent Comments

    Archives

    • May 2025
    • April 2025
    • March 2025
    • February 2025
    • December 2024
    • September 2024
    • August 2024
    • June 2024
    • May 2024
    • April 2024
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • October 2023
    • September 2023
    • August 2023
    • June 2023
    • April 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • January 2018
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • February 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • October 2012
    • September 2012
    • August 2012
    • July 2012
    • June 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • February 2012
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • May 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • February 2010
    • January 2010
    • January 1970

    Categories

    • Abandoned Mine Lands
    • ACLC News
    • Advocacy
    • Bankruptcy
    • Black Lung
    • Case Study
    • COVID-19
    • Environmental
    • Flooding
    • Just Transition
    • Justice
    • Mine Safety
    • Press Release
    • Uncategorized
    • Water

    Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org
    • Who We Are
      • About Us
      • Staff & Board
      • Internships & Fellowships
      • Job Openings
      • Contact
      • Financials
    • What We Do
      • Environmental Justice
      • Miners’ Health & Safety
      • Policy & Research
      • Advocacy
    • Get Help
      • Federal Black Lung Benefits
      • Black Lung Associations
      • Environmental Problems
      • Mine Safety Discrimination
    • Take Action
    • News
    • DONATE

    Sitemap

    Copyright © 2025 Appalachian Citizens' Law Center

    We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok