In these states miners in their 30s, 40s, and early 50s are getting black lung. That’s about 10 to 30 years sooner than in the past. Thirty-five percent of the cases were described as rapidly progressive, meaning the scar tissue in the lungs was spreading about twice as fast as normal.

Black lung is contracted by prolonged breathing of coal dust. There is no cure. But the disease can be prevented by properly ventilating coal mines. As far back as 1995, NIOSH recommended lowering the coal-dust limit from two to one milligrams per cubic meter. The federal government, however, has taken no action on the recommendation for a decade.

The study tracked X-rays of more than 29,000 miners between 1996 and 2002. It found about 3 percent had black lung, or coal miners’ pneumoconiosis. That compares to 10 percent in 1969. This study was conducted before the recent boom in coal production and the related speedup by the mine owners and their profit-driven disregard for safety. This has resulted in the deaths of 37 miners so far this year, overwhelmingly at nonunion mines.

The study cites Somerset County, Pennsylvania, as one of the worst counties in the country for black-lung rates. George Ellis, Pennsylvania Coal Association president, said the findings contradict much of what he hears, reported the Tribune Democrat. “It’s the first I’ve heard of a problem in Pennsylvania,” he said.

According to AP, Kentucky Coal Association president Bill Caylor said that more research should be done before coal operators are blamed. He pointed to the study’s reported overall decline in the disease in the last three decades to back up his claim.

“Miners are getting black lung at a younger age and a more advanced state,” Sparkle Bonds told the Militant in a recent phone interview. Bonds works for the Virginia Black Lung Association. One miner who visited her office in 1998-99 died six years later at the age of 43, Bonds said. Another developed acute silicosis after just three years.

According to the United Mine Workers of America, every year 1,500 former miners die from the disease.

The 1969 Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act mandated that black lung be eliminated. The law established a benefits program to compensate victims. A three-week strike that shut down coal production in West Virginia was a key factor leading to passage of this legislation.

But being diagnosed with black lung and getting benefits are very different things, James M. Taulbee told the Militant. Taulbee worked in coal mines in Kentucky for 17 years. He said he was disabled after injuring his back in a roof fall. He has also been denied black lung benefits despite having X-rays and a doctor’s letter verifying that he has the disease. Taulbee and his father, James I. Taulbee, spoke to Militant reporters August 20 in their home in Harlan, Kentucky.

“This is what they do, you have two doctors who say you have black lung and they find two others who deny it. And they keep appealing and appealing until you give up,” James M. Taulbee said.

His father, who drove coal trucks for 30 years, qualified for black lung benefits. In order to fulfill a requirement that recipients retrain for other jobs, however, his father has been ordered to go back to school for a 17-week course to get a GED. But James I. Taulbee is 65 years old. Despite providing the required doctor’s note explaining he was unable to go to school full-time because of a heart condition, the retired miner was cut off benefits after 17 weeks.

“My lawyer told me to give up fighting because they would only reduce my social security by the amount I get for black lung benefits,” the elder Taulbee said.

Shawn Smith, 21, a bolt runner in a nonunion mine near Harlan, told the Militant his job exposes him to an even higher amount of coal dust than most of his co-workers. “We run the miner down the middle of the mine,” he said. “On one side there’s fresh air, the ‘intake.’ But I work on the ‘return’ side where the fans suck out all the dirty air.”

Seth Dellinger from Washington, and Tony Lane from Pittsburgh contributed to this article.
 
 
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