WV GAZETTE-MAIL: MSHA Citations Reveal Mine Unsanitary Conditions Left WV Miners Even More Vulnerable to COVID-19

ACLC executive director Wes Addington was interviewed for this article.

“Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center Executive Director Wes Addington has said he worries many miners suffering from black lung disease may have been unnecessarily exposed to the coronavirus because mining companies and federal regulators failed to do more to protect them.”

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“Published in the American Journal of Public Health, the report found one in 20 long-tenured underground miners in central Appalachia had black lung disease that had advanced to progressive massive fibrosis, a condition the authors noted is ‘totally disabling.

”We can think of no other industry or workplace in the United States in which this would be considered acceptable,’ the authors wrote.”

Read the full article here.