"Miners and their advocates have long demanded stricter standards on exposure to silica, a leading cause of an epidemic of black lung. They’re still waiting."
"Gary Hairston worked as an electrician in an underground coal mine for almost 30 years. It was hard, often grimy work. When a big machine called a continuous miner dug into the hard earth, it kicked up all kinds of dust. Slowly, Hairston began to notice that daily tasks wiped him out. At night he woke up struggling for breath. He developed a nasty cough that worsened over time. During a routine health screening a few years ago, doctors noticed a spot on his lung. Their diagnosis was grim: coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, better known as black lung. Its progress is slow, but terminal. When Hairston was 48, he retired to look after his health and turned to organizing, so that future miners might work in safer conditions.
Miners have always been at risk of black lung, but pulmonologists and medical researchers have seen a marked increase in recent years. The disease, while not genetic or contagious, often wends its way through families who work the mines. Hairston’s brother and father have it, too. Now, between frequent trips to the hospital, he fights for the rights and needs of others like them as president of the National Black Lung Association. He worked for decades before his diagnosis, but these days sees younger workers who don’t make it nearly that long.
“These younger coal miners had been in the mine five years and some barely could breathe, they had to take breaths, even at talks,” Hairston said."
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