How Black Lung Came Roaring Back to Coal Country - The New York Times

Once nearly eradicated, the "old man's disease" is back and suffocating younger miners. Federal cuts risk putting a solution further out of reach...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/well/black-lung-appalachia-coal-miners.html

 

Another coal company caught faking safety data, as mining areas suffer an epidemic of black lung - Daily Kos

In 2008, I watched as my father-in-law spent weeks in the hospital, passed into a coma, and eventually died from heart issues directly related to long-term effects of progressive massive fibrosis, also known as coalworker's pneumoconiosis. Also know as black lung disease. He was far from unique. ....
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1779946

Trump promised to bring back coal, but he also promised to slash some key health protections for miners

Again and again, President-elect Donald Trump presented himself as the coal miners' candidate. During the campaign, he promised to bring coal back into the economy, and jobs back into struggling Appalachian towns.

But now some in coal country are worried that instead of helping, Trump's first actions will deprive miners - and their widows and children - of the compensation they can receive if they are disabled by respiratory problems linked to breathing coal mine dust. ...
https://www.statnews.com/2016/11/28/trump-black-lung/