Black lung threat increasing among coal miners

we head off to Coal Country Now with senior   contributor Ted Koppel who's found that  an age-old problem is afflicting even the young West Virginia October Friday Night Football  the Oak Hill Red Devils are hosting the Buckhannon   Buccaneers we will now have our little miss long  before game time the littlest fans dressed to   the teeth Miss Adaline Reese Queen are trotted  out one by one by a succession of cheerleaders   her favorite person is her mom because she  stands by my side no matter if life is good or bad when the cheerleaders crank up  their own routine a few Veterans of   the squad from a generation or two  ago are discreetly keeping Pace in   the back row in small town America  Friday Night Football is a family event and it remains a big deal Zach Davis here  he's head coach for the Buccaneers our kids some   are going to go to college and then go into some  sort of professional career a lot of them will   go be a blue collar worker um whether that's  at Walmart or a local business or some sort of   convenience store I notice you're not mentioning  the mines this used to be this is coal country   right here used to be I think a couple of our kids  I know of have been in the mine since I've been   here but not very many these kids who are out in  the field right now 20 years ago half of them at   least would have ended up in the mines that's a  fight today today no chance of going in the coal   mine I graduated high school on a Friday Monday  morning I was in the co my dad worked Coal mine   my Grandad worked Coal mine my brothers worked  coal mine still is coal country but not like   it used to be Don Barrett used to be a miner 23  years in a coal mine everybody was working there   was jobs everywhere people buying new homes new  cars life was good that was the upside mining of   course was always a dangerous job and one in  every five miners has for years ended up with   black lung black lung is a bad disease I have  problems breathing you have coughing you just   suffer to where you can't do the things that you  used to do Kevin Weikle is taking what's called a   pulmonary function test big deep breath in blast  it out hard keep pushing keep it identifies just   how badly impaired his lungs have become the test  confirms what he and respiratory therapist Lisa   Emery already know good almost there big breath  in suck in suck in good take a break and you can   take your notse Kevin's blank lung is so severe  that he can no longer work in the mines yeah these   things are tough what's different about Kevin is  his age used to be black lung didn't force a man   out of the minds until he was in his late 50s  or early 60s Kevin is just 34 Kevin has been a   miner almost half his life there he was at age 18  suddenly making more money than he ever dreamed   possible the first 6 months under underground at  $12 an hour made $76,000 in 6 months in 6 months   that's how much I worked sometimes I wouldn't even  go home I'd go out and sleep in the parking lot   get back up and go back in I was told that I'd  break myself long before I broke the company so   I could work as much just wanted I'm guessing  there was a there was a truck in your future   there somewhere yeah yeah is that the first thing  you bought yep I went and bought a brand new F250   Diesel you you grow up with little so when you  start making that kind of money you those were   the good days yeah yeah those was the good  days when did life start getting serious when my son was born then you look at stuff different how you really realize and the dangers when you have something to  live for instead of just yourself it's something that you expect to get  when you're old not 34 you're 34 34 and you got   black lung complicated black lung what do they  mean by complicated my lungs is turning into rock Kevin is just one of many young miners  showing up at the New River Health clinic   this is a complicated forms of pneumoconiosis  so he has the worst form of black lung that's   respiratory therapist Lisa Emery again our  rates of black lung in central Appalachia   are skyrocketing why is that Lisa it seems that  the miners are having higher exposure levels to   silica dust you tell me if I'm over simplifying  it they're having to drill through more rock to   get to the coal absolutely and The Rock Dust  paradoxically is more damaging to the lungs   even than the coal dust is that's right it's  smaller it's finer it's a a dust called silica   dust this is the second of three public hearings  that m is holding on the proposed rule lowering   miner's exposure to respirable crystalline silica  MSHA the Mine safety and health administration   has proposed a new rule that would lower miner  exposure to that silica dust and I'm happy to   see this included in the proposed rule it's a rule  that needs Congressional approval but still faces   Republican opposition it needs to be reinforced  by MHSA not by the coal companies we contacted   several mining trade associations all declined  the opportunity to comment we've already got the   limits for black lung coal dust this is silica  dust which has been their present all time and   it cuts your lungs William Bolts Willis retired  from the coal industry years ago but he's still   in the Union in fact he's president of United  Mine Workers Local 8843 but this in and of itself   is going to change nothing it may not because  there's no teeth in what they're doing to make   the companies comply with this coal mining isn't  a bad job I do love coal mining but it doesn't   have to be the way it is "Roscoe" that's not  his real name is a 34-year-old working coal   miner who fears that he already has black lung  the reason we're obscuring his identity is his   contention that the minds routinely Break The  Rules what would happen if your name came out   probably never have a job in the co- industry  again you serious 100% Rosco explains what   happens when an inspector comes on mine property  everybody's crossing their t's and dotting their   i's everything's done right when we're underground  and an inspector pulls up on that property before   he ever gets out of the vehicle the dispatcher  calls underground and lets every section know   that there's an inspector on the property so by  the time the inspector comes up to the section   everything's right how many years has that been  going on well that's been going on since I've been   yeah yeah they keep raising these dust laws and  these ventilation laws for these coal companies   thinking that it's going to help this black  lung matter but it's not because because the   laws that are in effect now would work if coal  companies actually obeyed them and took care of   their men fulltime instead of whenever there's  just an inspector on on the section the only   thing that mining companies understand is money  Sam Petsonk represents miners in their lawsuits   seeking benefits for black lung coal companies  rarely provide such benefits without being sued   we are seeing many young miners hundreds in this  region where I practice law as young as their 30s   losing over a quarter of their lung to pure rock  dust it's a crisis we've never seen so many young   miners with such short exposures becoming so  extremely sick so for years now you've been   trying to get an improvement in the regulation  which you now have unfortunately the rule lacks   any significant enforcement mechanism before the  rule is finalized the Department of Labor must add   significant enforcement mechanisms and specified  monetary penalties for violating this rule or else   or else or else unfortunately we have no reason to  expect that the rate of black lung and silicosis   will decline in this country there's some kind of  a gauge that measures a dust pump a dust pump that   measures the dust in the air it takes in that dust  and traps it in a filter Kevin Weikle explains how   he says the mines stack the deck when it comes to  testing for air quality company pumps you would   keep them in clean air to make sure that they  pass so really what the inspectors was seeing   was not a normal shift was not a normal shift  if the inspectors had actually seen what the   real reading was what would the difference have  been significant and what would that have meant   a lot of changes I mean in ventilation La up the  air required on each machine it would have been   more expensive for the company yeah it would have  been more expensive expensive and a great loss of   production you think that happens a lot I know it  does and anybody says it don'ts lying the disease   as Kevin knows is not reversible it's progressing  it will progress whether I'm in the dust or not   it's still going to grow and lead to probably a  lung transplant at some point and time if you're   lucky if I'm lucky yeah expensive very have  you got any idea what it costs I don't tens of   thousands of dollars say it's close to a million  yeah really yeah and the money is only part of   the problem there are weight lists and limited  locations where lung transplants are performed   which can mean moving entire families from months  at a time television programs don't dwell much on   what comes next the unexpected expenses the likely  relocation the shifting responsibilities Kevin and   his wife Megan have four young children what  lies ahead is daunting for all of them you've   been silent throughout this whole thing yeah tell  me a little bit about how this has been for you   it's been really depressing yeah all of a sudden  you got a lot more responsibility than you ever   thought you were going to need lot of stress  yeah the cold company laid it out for Kevin   half a lifetime ago he'd break himself before he  broke the company and that's pretty much how it is

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 71,399

Keywords: Sunday Morning, Health, U.S.

Id: t-LCYuecyUY

Length: 12min 58sec (778 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 10 2023