Black Lung Disease Rises in Appalachia | Coal’s Human Cost (Full Documentary) | Frontline (Pbs)

An investigation into the resurgence of black lung disease among veteran Appalachian coal miners & the failures to protect them.

Working veteran underground coal miners in central Appalachia are suffering from black lung disease at the highest rates in nearly 50 years. It’s now as bad as the 1970s, with thousands of miners sick and dying. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been boosting coal mining, with a pledge of nearly $700 million to keep coal-fired power plants running and coal exports flowing.

“Coal’s Human Cost,” an investigative documentary eight years in the making from FRONTLINE, NPR, Public Health Watch and the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom tracks the resurgence of this disease in Appalachia, its impact on miners and their families, and the role of the government and the mining industry in failing to protect them.

The documentary also examines how doctors and advocates have been trying for years to sound the alarm and to get better protections for miners.

“This has been going on for decades,” says Drew Harris, a pulmonologist and medical director at black lung clinics who has worked with hundreds of sick miners over the years “And we know why this is happening, and it is entirely preventable, and we aren’t preventing it.”

“Coal’s Human Cost” is a FRONTLINE production with Five O’Clock Films in association with Forage Media. The writer, producer and director is Molly Born. The producer and correspondent is Howard Berkes. The senior producer is Frank Koughan. The managing editor of FRONTLINE is Andrew Metz. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.
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CHAPTERS:

00:00 - Prologue
01:03 - Black Lung Disease Rates in Appalachian Coal Miners
11:30 - Tracking Black Lung Disease in Veteran Coal Miners
22:32 - The History of Coal Mining Regulations in the U.S.
26:09 - How the Coal Mining Industry Responded to Toxic Silica
33:57 - Can Respirators Help Protect Coal Miners?
41:28 - Coal Miners & Advocates’ Take Their Concerns to Congress
44:32 - Hopes & Fears of Coal Miners With Black Lung Disease
51:57 - Credits

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