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'They're Crooks': Coal Industry Aims to Exploit Coronavirus Crisis to Cut Payments to Miners With Black Lung
11 April
Popular
A truck is loaded with coal at a mine on Aug. 26, 2019 near Cumberland, Kentucky. Scott Olson / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
Some of the largest coal companies in the United States are using the coronavirus crisis to pressure Congress to slash the tax that finances the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, a lifeline for more than 20,000 miners whose lung disease makes them more vulnerable to COVID-19.
<p>The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/08/coal-black-lung-coronavirus/" target="_blank">reported</a> this week that the National Mining Association (NMA), a trade group that represents the biggest U.S. coal operators still standing, "asked Congress last month for a 55 percent cut in the excise tax for the trust fund, and a suspension of another fee that pays to clean up abandoned mines. Altogether the operators say they could save about $220 million."</p>
<p>"While the level of taxation to back the fund has fluctuated sharply over the past two years," the Post noted, "it currently stands at $1.10 for every ton of coal mined underground and 55 cents for surface coal."</p><p>Harold Sturgill, a 60-year-old retired miner who was diagnosed with black lung in 1998, said in an interview with the Post that coal companies are "going to try to use this virus thing to stop paying benefits."</p><p>"They're crooks," Sturgill said.</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1248301929551331331" id="twitter-embed-1248301929551331331" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1248301929551331331&created_ts=1586453346.0&screen_name=SierraClub&text=%E2%80%9CThe+burden+should+be+on+the+coal+operators%2C%E2%80%9D+Bounds+said.+%E2%80%9CThey+come+in+our+state%2C+they+mine+our+coal%2C+they+fill+t%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FT0HWWa2mb7&id=1248301929551331331&name=Sierra+Club" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="3c7c836fbd67a15375d3fbea73aab75d"></iframe><p>The NMA explicitly pointed to the coronavirus crisis in its tax cut <a href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2020/03/20/document_ew_02.pdf" target="_blank">request to Congress</a> — which was not included in the stimulus package that Congress passed last month — and labeled the coal industry "essential" to energy production in the United States. A group of Republican senators is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-08/republican-senators-want-to-help-coal-get-u-s-bailout-money" target="_blank">currently pressuring the Federal Reserve</a> to allow coal companies to benefit from the multi-trillion-dollar CARES Act.</p><p>"As the country faces this unique and mounting challenge around the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. coal miners continue to work to provide the resources necessary to power America while bracing for the severe financial distress facing all sectors across the nation," NMA wrote to congressional leaders. "To minimize the impact of this crisis on the coal industry, Congress should ensure all businesses have the financial resources necessary to ride out the pandemic."</p><p>The group, according to the Post, intends to keep pushing for the tax cut in future stimulus legislation.</p>
<p>As EcoWatch <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coal-miners-black-lung-coronavirus-2645657102.html" target="_self" style="">reported</a> earlier this week, "in some states like West Virginia, coal mines have been classified as essential services and are staying open during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though the close quarters miners work in and the known risks to respiratory health put miners in harm's way during the spread of the coronavirus."</p><p>"Nobody knows what this virus is going to do when it gets to this area," Jimmy Moore, a 74-year-old black lung patient in Shelby Gap, Kentucky, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coronavirus-coal-miners-black-lung_n_5e862723c5b6a949183323d7" target="_blank">told</a> HuffPost. "It's probably just going to wipe us out."</p><p>Miners and advocates have long warned about the financial health of the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, which is deeply in debt, and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/24/he-mightve-stayed-minute-coal-miners-black-lung-slam-mcconnell-brushing-them" target="_blank">repeatedly asked lawmakers</a> to act to ensure that the program is sustainable over the long term. Last July, as Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/24/he-mightve-stayed-minute-coal-miners-black-lung-slam-mcconnell-brushing-them" target="_blank">reported</a>, a group of around 120 retired miners traveled to Washington, D.C. to demand congressional action to secure the fund's finances, only to be brushed aside by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican.</p><p>Lynda Glagola, chairwoman of the National Coalition of Black Lung and Respiratory Disease Clinics, told the Post that if Congress grants the coal industry its desired tax cut, "the fund will spiral deeper and deeper into debt causing it to become a red financial flag."</p><p>"Especially at this time, as the economy is collapsing right before our eyes," Glagola warned, "lawmakers will soon be looking for programs to cut to save money and reduce the national debt and deficit."</p><p>In response to NMA's request, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) — chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee — and Rep. Matthew Cartwright (D-Pa.) wrote a <a href="https://naturalresources.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Grijalva%20Cartwright%20Letter%20to%20Congressional%20Leaders%20on%20National%20Mining%20Association%20COVID%20Proposals%20March%2020%202020.pdf" target="_blank">letter</a> to congressional leaders last month urging them to reject the coal industry's "wish-list" and "focus federal resources on the workers, families, and communities that are being hardest hit by this crisis."</p><p>"The coal industry is taking advantage of the country's current circumstances to advocate for policies that are completely unrelated to the current crisis, policies that would in fact set back efforts to improve the health and lives of people across the country," the lawmakers wrote. "At a time when the country is facing a pandemic due to a respiratory illness, it is particularly egregious for the coal industry to advocate reducing the Black Lung Excise Tax."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/11/theyre-crooks-coal-industry-aims-exploit-coronavirus-crisis-cut-payments-miners" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A retired West Virginia miner suffering from black lung visits a doctor for tests. Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty Images
In some states like West Virginia, coal mines have been classified as essential services and are staying open during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though the close quarters miners work in and the known risks to respiratory health put miners in harm's way during the spread of the coronavirus.
<p>In Appalachia, miners with pneumoconiosis, or black lung disease, are at particularly high risk of coronavirus, according to <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coronavirus-coal-miners-black-lung_n_5e862723c5b6a949183323d7" target="_blank">HuffPost</a>. Official <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/upd-07-20-18.html" target="_blank">statistics</a> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put the number of underground coal miners with black lung disease at one in 10, though experts estimate the number could be 20 percent or higher.</p><p>When someone has black lung disease, scarring in the respiratory tract makes breathing labored. The notion of adding exposure to a severe respiratory illness like COVID-19 has some workers terrified, according to <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coronavirus-coal-miners-black-lung_n_5e862723c5b6a949183323d7" target="_blank">HuffPost</a>. Furthermore, the communities where coal miners live tend to have higher than average comorbidities like obesity and diabetes.</p>
<p>Appalachians, for example are more likely than other Americans to have ailments such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes, due in part to smoking and a more sedentary lifestyle, according to the <a href="https://www.arc.gov/assets/research_reports/Health_Disparities_in_Appalachia_August_2017.pdf" target="_blank">Appalachian Regional Commission</a>, all of which could complicate the effects of COVID-19.</p><p>"Nobody knows what this virus is going to do when it gets to this area," said Jimmy Moore, a 74-year-old black lung patient in Shelby Gap, Kentucky, to <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coronavirus-coal-miners-black-lung_n_5e862723c5b6a949183323d7" target="_blank">HuffPost</a>. "It's probably just going to wipe us out."</p>
<p>The age of many black lung sufferers also complicates exposure to the coronavirus, according to Anna Allen, a West Virginia doctor who cares for black lung patients, as <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-12/black-lung-coal-miners-facing-serious-threat-from-virus-spread" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a> reported.</p><p>In Australia, which has a robust coal mining industry and a significant portion of GDP derived from exporting coal to China and India, there have been drastic improvements since 2015 to improve working conditions for miners. However, miners with long-term exposure have most likely already had their lungs damaged but may not know it yet.</p>
<p>"The disease usually takes a minimum of five years to 10 years in very heavy exposure to develop, and a bit longer if the exposures are not so heavy," said Dr. Robert Cohen, the medical director of the Black Lung Center of Excellence at the University of Illinois, to the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-02/black-lung-sufferers-bunker-down-to-avoid-coronavirus/12092680" target="_blank">Australian Broadcasting Corporation</a>. "So we're not likely going to see that for a little bit of time yet in terms of the effect of new dust controls. While we are getting a number of new cases, I think that in some ways we are gathering up these cases that were probably undiagnosed and hadn't been paid attention to before."</p><p>Cohen said that people with black lung disease exposed to coronavirus would face severe complications.</p><p>"Coronavirus is definitely worse in people who have underlying lung disease," he said to the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-02/black-lung-sufferers-bunker-down-to-avoid-coronavirus/12092680" target="_blank">Australian Broadcasting Corporation</a>.</p><p>"We actually closed all our black lung clinics and we're asking miners not to come in for exams at the moment. We don't think it's worth the risk {of} them being in hospitals and clinics where sick people are at this time."</p>
<p>"We are seriously worried about our population out here," said Teresa Tyson, president and CEO of The Health Wagon, which operates free clinics in Wise, Virginia, and surrounding counties, to <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coronavirus-coal-miners-black-lung_n_5e862723c5b6a949183323d7" target="_blank">HuffPost</a>. She added that her father is a former coal miner who has black lung. COVID-19 "would be a nail in the coffin," she said.</p><p>Tyson's clinic tried to make sure all her black lung patients had three months of medicine and frequently check in by phone or video. In nearby West Virginia, however, many rural black lung patients have neither the technology nor broadband service for telemedicine, according to Dan Doyle, who runs a breathing clinic in West Virginia, as <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coronavirus-coal-miners-black-lung_n_5e862723c5b6a949183323d7" target="_blank">HuffPost</a> reported.</p><p>Despite pleas for social distancing, Doyle said he hasn't seen much change in mining operations in recent weeks. Mine workers are also still walking around town as usual, he said, possibly spreading the virus without knowing.</p><p>"It looks to me like they're going about their business," Doyle said to <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coronavirus-coal-miners-black-lung_n_5e862723c5b6a949183323d7" target="_blank">HuffPost</a>. "Until their co-workers start falling ill, I don't think they're going to change. A lot of people here are not convinced they need to do anything."</p>
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In a study released this month by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), federal researchers identified more than 400 cases of complicated black lung in three clinics in southwestern Virginia between 2013 and 2017—the largest cluster ever reported.
However, the actual number of cases is likely much, much higher as the government analysis relied on self-reporting. An ongoing investigation from NPR has counted nearly 2,000 cases diagnosed since 2010 across Appalachia.
<p>
NPR investigative reporter Howard Berkes, who has been closely
<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/01/535082619/npr-continues-to-find-hundreds-of-cases-of-advanced-black-lung" target="_blank">following the epidemic</a> explained to <a href="http://wesa.fm/post/surge-black-lung-disease-appalachia#stream/0" target="_blank">Pittsburgh's NPR news station</a>:
</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">
"In the study that NIOSH just produced, they looked at three clinics in southwestern Virginia which serves coal miners from Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia. And they identified and confirmed 416 cases of the disease in the previous few years. The study ended about a year ago. That's an astonishing number. NIOSH itself in its own accounting of that disease, found less than 100 cases in the same timeframe nationwide. And here in just three clinics in southwestern Virginia, there are four times as many cases. NPR has been surveying black lung clinics across Appalachia, and our count is up close to two thousand cases in the same timeframe that NIOSH had previously identified only 99. NIOSH itself now recognizes that this as the worst cluster of this disease ever documented. NIOSH has referred to it as one of the worst industrial workplace disasters in American history. It also marks what is a sharp increase in the disease from the 1990s, when researchers believed that it might actually become extinct."
</p><p style="">
Black lung disease, also known as
<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal">coal</a> workers' pneumoconiosis, comes from exposure to coal mine dust. Ever since the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, which was passed in response to the deaths of 78 miners in West Virginia and implemented stricter safety standards, cases had been declining and virtually eradicated by the 1990s.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image" style="">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzMyNTA1NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjI0MDkwMX0.Os6rwEeYybsNetXDR8JBqazBQjtOcaWCoAzFQg2K1ys/img.jpg?width=980" id="6cb64" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dbd546813cdffda7aab80278f276e632" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Coal worker's pneumoconiosis. The black pigmentation and fibrosis are due to inhalation of carbon pigment and silica respectively in a coal worker. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Yale Rosen / Flickr</small></p><p style="">But the disease roared back in the 2000s and we are now seeing an uptick in progressive massive fibrosis, the most deadly form of black lung, which is
<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/01/535082619/npr-continues-to-find-hundreds-of-cases-of-advanced-black-lung" target="_blank">blamed on</a> inhalation of both coal and silica dust from mines.<br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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</p><p>
According to the
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/22/climate/black-lung-resurgence.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a>, "scientists <a href="http://oem.bmj.com/content/67/10/652" target="_blank">have linked</a> the new wave of lung disease to miners breathing in more silica dust, the likely result of a decades-long shift toward mining thinner coal seams that require cutting into the surrounding rock. Silica dust from pulverized rock can damage lungs faster than coal dust alone."
</p><p style="">
"Modern machinery, insufficient training for workers, and longer work hours may also contribute to increased dust exposure, experts say," the Times added.
</p><p style="">
All this comes as
<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch">President Trump</a> cuts regulations, pushes for "<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-coal-speech-2530195103.html">beautiful clean coal</a>" and promises to send miners back to work.
</p><p style="">
"There's an unacceptably large number of younger miners who have end-stage disease and the only choice is to get a lung transplant or wait it out and die," epidemiologist David J. Blackley told the Times.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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</p>
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