Black Lung Disease Remains a Threat in WV

The Trump Administration last year paused enforcement of a rule designed to protect coal miners from an aggressive form of black lung disease caused by exposure to silica dust.  Retired West Virginia coal miner and president of the national Black Lung Association Gary Hairston says miners are now getting sick much earlier in in life, many with young children…

“And you take a coal miner that had about five years, in the coal mines, and he’s got to come out, he got a family. So if he depended on federal government and what little bit he get from disabled Social Security, he wouldn’t be able to live on that.”