The Black Lung Association (BLA) was founded in 1969 to win benefits for coal miners suffering from black lung disease. Pneumoconiosis, or black lung, is a disabling pulmonary disease caused by breathing coal dust. It is a progressive illness that causes shortness of breath and eventually suffocation. While there is no cure, black lung as an occupational disease can be virtually eliminated through proper air ventilation and water sprays in the mines to reduce dust levels, and the use of respirators.

For many decades, both the coal bosses and the government denied that black lung disease even existed. Through the struggles of miners and their union, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), national black lung benefits were finally won in the 1970s, along with regulations controlling the amount of coal dust in the mines.

Coal operators regularly ignore or circumvent regulations limiting coal dust exposure. They have also driven to push back access to black lung benefits. Only 7.5 percent of miners who apply for benefits actually receive them. Roughly 1,500 workers a year die of black lung. Countless other lives are cut short by this disease and related illnesses, but these cases go unreported if black lung is not listed on the death certificate.

"One big problem is that a lot of miners don't know how to fight to get their benefits," Archie Young, retired after 40 years in the Alabama coal mines and president of the Alabama chapter of the BLA, said in an interview. Young, a still powerful-looking man who played for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Baseball League in his youth, suffers from black lung.

"The Department of Labor sends you to a doctor, but nine times out of 10 you get turned down," Young explained. More often than not, the presence of black lung disease does not register on a normal X-ray.

"Beginning under the Reagan administration, the laws governing black lung benefits were weighted in favor of the coal companies. These companies will fight to deny you benefits to the last [breath]," he continued. Young was awarded black lung benefits, but his former employer is appealing this ruling.

In his feature presentation to the Black Lung Association meeting, Joe Main, health and safety director of the UMWA, spoke of the fight to defend the Coal Act. The law requires all companies that ever signed a UMWA contract--reaching back 30 years--to pay lifetime health benefits to their retirees. The UMWA maintains the Combined Benefit Fund (CBF), which was established under the Coal Act and provides benefits for about 70,000 retired miners and their families. There have been more than 60 court challenges by the coal companies to the act.

Main spoke of the recent $94 million emergency funding of the Coal Act passed by Congress. This would not have happened, he maintained, "if it wasn't for the support of people like those in this room." More than half of those in attendance had taken part in the May 17 "Keep the Promise" rally in Washington demanding funding for the Coal Act.

The U.S. Department of Labor is considering new regulations for coal miners seeking black lung disease compensation. "At this point we are going to wait for those who have made us promises to keep them and implement these new regulations. We may well be marching in Washington again," Main said.

The UMWA official noted that recent hearings have discussed the new guidelines for diesel fumes by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). A 1998 proposal would require removing an average of at least 95 percent of the mass of the diesel particulate matter emitted from the engine.

Underground miners are exposed to a far higher concentration of this fine particulate than any other group of workers. The best available evidence indicates that such high exposure puts these miners at risk for a variety of ailments, including lung cancer. Main cited the example of the Shoal Creek mine in Alabama, with 150 pieces of diesel equipment operating underground, as a particularly egregious example.  
 
Fight to limit coal dust in mines
Main also touched on the fight to limit respirable coal dust in the mines, explaining that the UMWA opposes proposed new MSHA regulations. These rules would take air testing out of the hands of the mine operators, who routinely cheat on air samples. But they would also authorize doubling the allowable limit of respirable coal mine dust during each shift from 1.0 to 2.0 parts per cubic meter.

Lewis Fitch, a retired miner from southern Illinois and president of the National Black Lung Association, projected a campaign to reconstruct BLA chapters in Pennsylvania and other areas of the coalfields. He was reelected at the convention along with the other officers.

Fitch was a preparation plant worker for 26 years, and has been receiving black lung benefits since 1979. Many people, including miners, think exposure to coal dust is a problem only for underground workers, Fitch explained, but those working in prep plants and in surface strip mines are also at risk.

Sandra Fogel, an attorney from Carbondale, Illinois, who specializes in black lung cases, pointed out, "Some 50 out of the total of 400 black lung cases I have handled have been surface miners."

Peggy Coleman, of Cedar Grove, West Virginia, spoke about the importance of continuing the fight for benefits for widows. In an interview she said, "I would say that very few widows have received benefits since 1982. Maybe 4 percent of them. I do not receive benefits, even though my husband who died 15 years ago had black lung. The cause of death was listed as 'lung cancer.' But if black lung hastens a miner's death, benefits should be paid."

Fred Carter, a retired miner who is Black and an early leader of the black lung movement, emphasized, "I said 30 years ago that there is a holocaust going on against miners. We need to call for a criminal investigation, and we need to put these operators in jail. They are poisoning miners, and also the air and ground water."

Den Hunter, a former miner from Floyd County, Kentucky, said he had received black lung benefits after a favorable Labor Department ruling. Three years later he lost benefits after an appeal by the mine bosses. He is fighting for reinstatement of benefits with the help of the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky. He believes if new proposed regulations are adopted he will be able to regain his benefits.

Marty Ressler is a sewing machine operator in St. Louis. Jacob Fox is a surface coal miner in Alabama. J. Rose contributed to this article.