Black Lung Epidemic Among American MIners

[qable]

Investigation: As Black Lung Cases Doubled In The Last Decade, The Coal Industry Fought New Health Protections

By Stephen Lacey on Jul 9, 2012 at 12:30 pm

In the last ten years, as cases of black lung among American coal miners doubled - hitting “epidemic” scale - the coal industry and anti-regulatory politicians have fought to prevent federal

Comments

[carmy_w]

It would be interesting to see the chart above compared to an annual budget chart for the dollars spent in oversight. I'd bet there's a strong correlation....

[aviv_b]

Not surprised at all. After all, if the Massey mine disaster didn't make the Congress open their eyes, what's a few thousand cases of black lung going to matter.

[__fasterfaster]

This.

[kynical]

This makes me furious. My aunt died of black lung (she was a miner in Virginia). I'm sure the rates of COPD and such are up as well. People don't realize that this doesn't just happen to miners. The dust gets in the air and causes all sorts of lung problems for people that live in the areas with coal mines.

[lovedforaday]

But I thought deregulation was supposed to be good for workers.

[wrestlingdog]

That is so fucked up.

Also, I feel like this is relevant:

[mellieebelliee]

This may be the oddest commercial I have ever seen...

[wrestlingdog]

Made all the more confusing by being set to a song about wage slavery in coal mines.