StrangeSox Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Black lung is returning in force among coal miners, and it's hitting them younger and quicker than ever before. http://www.npr.org/2012/07/09/155978300/as...ung-cases-surge http://www.npr.org/2012/07/10/155981916/bl...ners-vulnerable Increased work hours (600 hours/year on average) and increased drilling speeds have caused exposure to silica to soar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted October 17, 2014 Author Share Posted October 17, 2014 LAST BREATH When a coal miner’s lungs finally gave out, his autopsy proved a top doctor was wrong — giving hope to thousands of other miners. The story of Steve Day and his final vindication. After working underground in the coal mines of southern West Virginia for almost 35 years, Steve Day thought it was obvious why he gasped for air, slept upright in a recliner, and inhaled oxygen from a tank 24 hours a day. More than half a dozen doctors who saw the masses in his lungs or the test results showing his severely impaired breathing were also in agreement. The clear diagnosis was black lung. Yet, when I met Steve in April 2013, he had lost his case to receive benefits guaranteed by federal law to any coal miner disabled by black lung. The coal company that employed the miner usually pays for these benefits, and, as almost always happens, Steve’s longtime employer had fought vigorously to avoid paying him. As a result, he and his family were barely scraping by, sometimes resorting to loans from relatives or neighbors to make it through the month. Like many other miners, he had lost primarily because of the opinions of a unit of doctors at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions that had long been the go-to place for coal companies seeking negative X-ray readings to help defeat a benefits claim. The longtime leader of the unit, Dr. Paul Wheeler, testified against Steve, and the judge determined that his opinion trumped all others, as judges have in many other cases. Today, however, there is final and overwhelming evidence that Wheeler was wrong: Steve’s autopsy. It's hard to think of a group worse than coal mine owners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_genius Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 17, 2014 -> 10:07 AM) LAST BREATH When a coal miner’s lungs finally gave out, his autopsy proved a top doctor was wrong — giving hope to thousands of other miners. The story of Steve Day and his final vindication. It's hard to think of a group worse than coal mine owners. corrupt shill doctors that provide bogus testimony on their behalf are up there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabiness42 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 corrupt shill doctors that provide bogus testimony on their behalf are up there. The doctors that provide the bogus testimony, and also the major research university employing those doctors. Johns Hopkins seems like a good target for social pressure. Somebody could get a good campaign going to put a dent in their donations, and get other schools to stop playing them in lacrosse. Sounds dumb, but I think something like that could have a real impact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted October 17, 2014 Author Share Posted October 17, 2014 Oh I thought I copied that part, John Hopkins suspended this program late last year due to mounting pressure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted October 17, 2014 Author Share Posted October 17, 2014 QUOTE (mr_genius @ Oct 17, 2014 -> 12:09 PM) corrupt shill doctors that provide bogus testimony on their behalf are up there. True, this guy is little different than the guys who swore up and down that tobacco was perfectly safe, that lead was perfectly safe, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swingandalongonetoleft Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 17, 2014 -> 09:07 AM) LAST BREATH When a coal miner’s lungs finally gave out, his autopsy proved a top doctor was wrong — giving hope to thousands of other miners. The story of Steve Day and his final vindication. It's hard to think of a group worse than coal mine owners. That was an excellent, but unfortunate read. I used to wonder how people like Dr. Paul Wheeler manage to sleep at night, but I stopped, because s***bags like him are such a common occurrence that there aren't enough seconds in eternity to waste if you wanted to worry about them. Employers and Insurance companies that will go to remarkable lengths to deny people like the subject of this article are also top-shelf scum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabiness42 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Oh I thought I copied that part, John Hopkins suspended this program late last year due to mounting pressure. Nice to see that at least something good came out of this. Would be nice to see an influx of decent jobs to the coal-mining areas so that people don't have to choose between working in a coal mine or not working at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Maybe we can build a bunch of lockheed martin factories in WVA/KY http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/17/lockhee...fusion-chamber/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 17, 2014 -> 02:44 PM) Maybe we can build a bunch of lockheed martin factories in WVA/KY http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/17/lockhee...fusion-chamber/ They're more likely to discover that black lung is actually good for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Yeah yeah, if you walk through the world like that you'll become Greg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 Black Lung Study Finds Biggest Cluster Ever Of Fatal Coal Miners' Disease Epidemiologists at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health say they've identified the largest cluster of advanced black lung disease ever reported, a cluster that was first uncovered by NPR 14 months ago. In a research letter published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, NIOSH confirms 416 cases of progressive massive fibrosis or complicated black lung in three clinics in central Appalachia from 2013 to 2017. "This is the largest cluster of progressive massive fibrosis ever reported in the scientific literature," says Scott Laney, a NIOSH epidemiologist involved in the study. "We've gone from having nearly eradicated PMF in the mid-1990s to the highest concentration of cases that anyone has ever seen," he said. The clinics are operated by Stone Mountain Health Services and assess and treat coal miners mostly from Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia, a region that includes what have historically been some of the most productive coalfields in the country. "When I first implemented this clinic back in 1990, you would see ... five [to] seven ... PMF cases" a year, says Ron Carson, who directs Stone Mountain's black lung program. The clinics now see that many cases every two weeks, he says, and have had 154 new diagnoses of PMF since the fieldwork for the NIOSH study concluded a year ago. "That's an indication that it's not slowing down," Carson says. "We are seeing something that we haven't seen before." It's being driven largely by increasingly mechanized coal mining that is going after smaller and smaller seams, meaning that a whole lot more non-coal rock gets ground up, and that contains a bunch of silica. At the same time, the Trump Administration is having a former coal executive "review" black lung regulations that were put in place under Obama with the explicitly stated goal of deregulation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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