By Stephen Millies
Black lung disease is a terrible way to die. Coal miners’ lungs become crusty and useless, according to Dr. Robert Cohen, a pulmonologist at the University of Illinois. Towards the end, Dr. Cohen told National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, patients are “essentially suffocating while alive.” (Dec. 18, 2018)
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported last July that “one in ten underground coal miners who have worked in mines for at least 25 years were identified as having black lung … coal miners in central Appalachia are disproportionately affected with as many as 1 in 5 having evidence of black lung — the highest level recorded in 25 years.”
What’s the response of the Trump administration to this epidemic? The excise tax on coal mining that’s used to finance black lung benefits is scheduled to be reduced from $1.10 per ton to fifty cents on Dec. 31, 2018. That’s sixty cents per ton added to the profits of outfits like Arch Coal, which made $582 million in 2017.