Government greatly under-reports black lung cases

The government reports less than 10% of the actual black lung cases in coal miners, a National Public Radio survey of individual treatment centers reveals.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported 99 cases of "complicated" black lung, or progressive massive fibrosis,  in the last five years.

NPR found 962 cases during that time frame in only 11 black lung clinics in West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio. The actual total would be higher because some clinics had incomplete records and others declined to provide data.

At United Medical Group, a clinic in Coal Run Village, Ky., radiologist Brandon Crum had 60 cases in 20 months and 644 in three years.

Edward "Lee" Petsonk of West Virginia University has spent three decades addressing the disease and finds NPR's numbers "very disheartening, very disappointing."

"I've spent much of my career trying to find ways to better protect miners' respiratory health," Petsonk says. "It's almost like I've failed."

To read the article, click on http://www.npr.org/2016/12/15/505577680/advanced-black-lung-cases-surge-in-appalachia?utm_source=npr