After all but eliminating black lung disease in the 1990s, America is now seeing a huge uptick in coal miners suffering and dying. And that spike in disease is coming even though the total number of working miners has significantly declined.
This is what Donald Trump’s “clean coal” does when it enters the lungs of a coal miner. The particles of coal enter the lungs and they never go away. Coal dust can’t be destroyed by the body. It doesn’t get broken down. It doesn’t get breathed out again. It only accumulates. But every particle of dust generates a response—a release of enzymes, hormones, and inflammatory responses that do break down something: the lungs of coal miners.
At first, those particles of coal cause anthracosis, a relatively mild disease often characterized by tiredness and a hacking “smoker’s cough” even among non-smokers. Its severity is very like that of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and it’s considered “mild” only because of what comes next. As more coal dust accumulates and the lung tissue itself is stained sooty-dark, coal worker’s pneumoconiosis develops. This is a much more serious syndrome that brings on the formation of fibrous connective tissue in the lungs and inflammation of the surrounding tissue. It saps the victim’s breath, leaves them gasping and coughing against the stiffening, fluid-filled spaces in their own lungs. And then it gets worse.
Next comes the affliction known as Progressive Massive Fibrosis. This includes dense, heavy masses of fiber—hard, incompressible masses—as the body’s immune system reacts desperately to the presence of the jagged, irritating particles. And finally comes necrosis, as parts of the lung actually begin to die. Along with the miner.
Together all of the above are known as “black lung disease” and they have been disabling and killing miners for centuries. When the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act was passed in 1969, then amended in 1977, it set strict limits on the amount of coal dust in underground mines. By 1999, the worst forms of black lung—especially Progressive Massive Fibrosis—were all but eliminated.
Then the administration of George W. Bush systematically undermined the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), 18 regulations to protect the health and safety of workers were totally eliminated in just five years, and fines against mine operators were radically cut. The result of those actions took a few years to be visible, but now the numbers dying from the worst forms of black lung are startling.
As The Washington Post reports, the number of miners suffering from black lung is now so large, that the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund is in circumstances as dire as many of the suffers. More than 25,000 men and women receive payments from the trust—a number that’s more than half the number of active coal miners. And as the amount of money in the trust goes down, the burden on people, and families, already suffering from black lung disease goes up.
The decline in coal production and the number of miners and companies contributing has seriously hurt the money in the fund. But there are two other factors that play an even bigger role in seeing that those gasping for air are also desperate for funds.
The first is that most of the largest coal operators in the country have filed for bankruptcy in the last decade. That includes number one provider Peabody Energy, the second largest Arch Coal, and number four Alpha Natural Resources. All of those companies went through chapter 11 and reorganized since 2016—leaving much of their financial obligations, including all their obligations to the black lung trust, behind. The number three producer, Cloud Peak Energy, declared bankruptcy in May. Those four companies alone are half the nation’s coal production, and they’ve left their miners behind.
The second, and equally deadly, factor killing the fund that’s supposed to save those being killed by black lung: the Republican tax bill. That bill cut the coal excise tax, the primary means of funding the black lung trust, by a staggering 55%. It was capped at 4.4% per ton. Starting in 2019, the cap is just 2%.
Put those things together and it’s clear why the money going into the trust is now just a fraction of what it was. And at the same time, the miners who worked through the reduced health and safety conditions that started under Bush, are now approaching a third decade underground.
The Centers for Disease Control report an “unprecedented increase” in the number of miners suffering from the worst form of the disease, from massive fibrosis. And in response, Donald Trump has put a mine operator with one of the worst safety records in charge of the MSHA, seen a near doubling of miner deaths, and presided over destroying the already in debt black lung trust.
More sick miners. Less money to cover them. That’s how Republicans love coal. Or at least … how they love coal mine owners.