We’ve been telling you how black lung rates in coal miners have doubled over the last ten years. The disease is caused by exposure to coal dust. As NPR has explained, faulty regulations and loopholes in air monitoring requirements play a large role in the disease’s recurrence. A bill strengthening the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration’s [...]
This is part two of an interview with NPR correspondent Howard Berkes about the reemergence of black lung in coal mines. In part one, Berkes faulted “widespread gaming of the [regulatory] system” for the increase. Read the full NPR/CPI report on how black lung has doubled during the last ten years here. A: One very [...]
Health experts say coal miners are facing a black lung “epidemic.” A joint NPR/Center for Public Integrity investigation has found diagnoses for the respiratory disease have doubled within the previous decade. What’s causing the resurgence? StateImpact Pennsylvania spoke to NPR correspondent Howard Berkes about the series. He began the conversation by explaining how miners develop black lung [...]
On Monday, NPR reported black lung diagnoses have doubled over the past decade, and quadrupled in West Virginia, Virginia and eastern Kentucky. Part two of a joint investigative report with the Center for Public Integrity casts a critical eye on the regulations that are supposed to limit the amount of dust in coal mines: Measuring [...]
An NPR investigative report has found the number of coal miners suffering from the black lung doubled during the last ten years. The respiratory disease, caused by excessive inhalation of coal dust, has quadrupled in West Virginia, Virginia, and eastern Kentucky. What’s more: federal regulators knew miners were breathing more and more coal dust, and [...]
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