Coal miners across Appalachia are suffering with severe cases of black lung disease, and a radiologist dealing with the crisis says even miners who have worked fewer than 20 years underground are affected.
“I think the percentage of black lung that we’re seeing now here in central Appalachia is unprecedented in any recorded data that I can find anywhere,” radiologist Brandon Crum, MD, of Coal Run Village, Kentucky, tells NPR. “In this clinic we’re roughly around 9 to 10 percent complicated rate, which is around three times higher than even the highest reported numbers.”
The NPR report follows on the heels of word from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) that many coal miners were hit by progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of black lung, between January 2015 and last August.
“The current numbers are unprecedented by any historical standard,” NIOSH epidemiologist Scott Laney tells NPR. “We had not seen cases of this magnitude ever before in history in central Appalachia.”
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