Across far Southwest Virginia’s two U.S. Department of Labor-certified black lung clinics, administrators agree that a growing share of the miners coming in for exams and testing for the black lung application process are getting younger.
I’ve lived in Southwest Virginia all my life, and I started working in the coal mines as a teenager. When I was 45, after decades of working for Westmoreland Coal,
This is a welcome development for miners with black lung disease and their families who rely on the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund for a small monthly living stipend and health insurance. On Jan. 1, 2022, the excise tax rate was cut by more than half after Congress failed to pass a four-year extension in the Build Back Better Act, and the trust fund is now losing.