black lung

The black lung screening program for coal miners was briefly killed off before an outcry led to a temporary reinstatement.

He still struggles with black lung disease, she said, and joint pain from time spent crawling underground.

The increased drilling generates deadly silica dust and has caused severe forms of pneumoconiosis, better known as black lung disease, even among younger miners, some in their 30s and 40s.

As progress on the rule stalled, government researchers documented with growing alarm a resurgence of severe black lung afflicting younger coal miners, and studies implicated poorly controlled silica as the likely cause.

Michael and David, who worked at the Haig Colliery in Whitehaven, Cumbria, know many miners who were struck down by black lung.