Black Lung disease, aka pneumoconiosis, has come roaring back in parts of the country.
Article in today's NY TIMES with a graph showing the rate for
Complicated Black Lung Disease has risen from 20 cases per 1,000 working coal miners in KY, VA, WV in 2011 to a current level of 51 cases per 1,000 working coal miners. That's a 150% increase and doctors at NIOSH are stunned at this spike in cases.
I
'm surprised a doctor like Rand Paul would fight against reducing disease, but KY Senators are owned by coal mining interests, as are WV Senators. Rand Paul is an eye doctor by trade, not a pulmonary specialist who'd treat this disease. As of today, the Trump administration is attempting to roll back some 2014 health standards so mining firms can make more money, despite killing more miners.
Fracking is bringing prodigious amounts of natural gas to market at stunningly low prices which I hope puts steam coal out of business asap so we finally can stop killing miners with black lung disease and "accidents" in the mines. IMO deadly mining "accidents" are no accident, they're usually result of management cutting corners on safety as we saw in the
Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster in 2010 that needlessly killed 29 miners due to one man's greed.
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