The Militant - February 8, 2010 -- Black lung disease afflicting younger miners

Vol. 74/No. 5 February 8, 2010

Black lung disease
afflicting younger miners

BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
The number of miners getting black lung, a debilitating and often fatal disease caused by breathing coal dust, is on the rise, especially for younger miners. Longer work shifts and company drives to raise production as they employ fewer workers has increased underground dust levels to which miners are exposed.

The situation is so severe that even West Virginia senator John D. Rockefeller IV, during a January 15 meeting at a local hospital acknowledged, “The big spike of people getting black lung today is taking place among people in their 20s and 30s, not in their 50s and 60s.”

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, about 9 percent of workers with 25 years or more in mines tested positive for black lung in 2005-2006, the latest published data. This is up from 4 percent in the late 1990s. The rates also doubled for people with 20 to 24 years in mining, including many in their late 30s and 40s. More than 10,000 miners have died from this disease during the past decade.

For many decades, both the coal bosses and the government denied that black lung disease even existed. Through popular struggles of miners and their union, the United Mine Workers of America, national black lung benefits were finally won in the 1970s, along with regulations controlling the amount of coal dust in the mines. One of the high points of this fight was the 23-day black lung strike of 45,000 coal miners in 1969. During the strike miners organized a series of demonstrations at the West Virginia state capitol in Charleston until a favorable black lung bill was passed.

Without the continued mobilization of coal miners and strengthening of their union, the coal bosses and the government have made it increasingly difficult for miners suffering from black lung to obtain benefits. According to a recent report by the General Accounting Office, 87 percent of claims for black lung benefits were initially denied in 2008. Those filing appeals then face additional expenses for lawyers and doctors in pursuing their cases.

Steps to lower the “permissible dust exposure limit” have been stalled by the federal government. The current level is 2 milligrams per cubic meter in underground mines. The mine safety administration announced plans to reduce this limit in 1999, but no change was ever made.

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