Surface mining may be the cause of higher rates of Black Lung Disease.
(Devan Ridgway - WFIU/WTIU)
Forty years ago, Jeffrey Chandler left the coal mining industry.
“It was a very dirty, dirty job,” he said. “We would come home, and I mean, we had to take our clothes off before we even went in the house. We’d get in the shower; our sinuses were full of black coal. We breathed that daily and nightly.”
He started working in mines after serving in the military. A surface mining program at Ivy Tech set him up for immediate success.
“We started out at $50,000 in 1976, plus a truck allowance,” he said. “The benefits were awesome.”
For a decade, Chandler worked as a drilling and blasting supervisor at various mines throughout Indiana, including Peabody Coal, Squaw Creek, and Rogers Energy in conjunction with the Black Beauty Coal Company.
For a decade, he and his colleagues breathed in dangerous coal ash from surface mining operations.
“I was a supervisor, and the safety folks never once told us ‘You should wear a mask’,” he said. “It just wasn’t thought of, you know? You just did your job and go.”
Jeffrey Chandler in his apartment in Terre Haute. Devan Ridgway - WFIU/WTIU
Now in his 70’s, he suffers from black lung disease, an ailment affecting about 16 percent of those who work in the coal industry.
He uses an oxygen respirator, a lung spray inhaler administered twice a day, and three separate medications to manage his symptoms. The disease also affects his immune system.
“I was in intensive care for 33 days,” he said. “I didn't wake up for 33 days two years ago with pneumonia. I suffer from these (issues) all the time, constantly. So I just have to wear a mask and be careful where I'm breathing.”
It’s a lot to manage, because according to Leonard Go, a physician at the University of Illinois, Chicago and one of the leading experts on black lung disease in the region, black lung isn’t simply one single condition.
“Black lung disease is what really the general public calls the spectrum of diseases that coal miners get from breathing in coal mined dust over the course of their careers,” he said.
Breathing in dust from mining can cause COPD, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and more due to scarring of the lungs. And once a miner has coal ash in their lungs, there’s no going back.
“There really isn't much we as in the medical community can do, aside from kind of supportive type treatments such as inhalers like we would for COPD or people who need oxygen,” he said.
An X-ray of lungs affected by Black Lung disease. The white, splotchy areas are scar tissue From Frontline's Coal's Deadly Dust documentary.
In 1969, Congress passed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act to better protect industry workers. But now, after decades of improvement, the number of miners living with black lung disease has started to increase.
Though it’s unclear why that is, some experts posit that surface mining circulates coal dust more than underground operations. Others say the addition of other minerals in the dust can cause more scarring in the lungs.
“It's as bad in some parts of the country as it was back in the early 1970s,” Go said. “And we think that's really because of silica that's in the rock that's cut next to the coal.”
For those with black lung, the Department of Labor has programs that can disburse financial compensation from coal companies.
But making the connection between miners in need and benefits counselors can be a challenge.
“It’s hardest to get the info out to people that weren't in a union mine because we don't know where to just randomly search for coal miners,” Shenel Rogers with UIC’s Black Lung Program said. “So most of ours are union miners, but the program is for anyone that was a coal miner.”
Luckily for Chandler, he offered Rogers a seat at a local restaurant in a chance encounter that led to a conversation, and eventually, the help he needed.
“I worked next door and asked her what she did,” Chandler said. “She told me she was with Black Lung benefits and told me a little bit about it. And I said, ‘My gosh, can you help me? I worked in the coal mines, and I've got lung problems.’”
Since 2021, Rogers has assisted him in getting appropriate medical care and in navigating the stacks of paperwork needed to receive roughly $800 a month in financial aid.
A collection of medical documents and forms Chandler and Rogers had to either collect or fill out the last few years to receive benefits. Devan Ridgway - WFIU/WTIU
Chandler’s case is typical. Some defunct coal companies have a trust fund to pay claims relatively easily. But others take years of lobbying to see results.
“It depends on kind of how ruthless the coal company attorney is,” Rogers said. “Because I mean, if they're constantly fighting everything and constantly sending them to exams, or they want a deposition or whatever it may be, that slows the process down.”
For Chandler, he was lucky to stumble into the assistance that he got. Now, he wants other miners to know there is help out there by contacting the Department of Labor’s Black Lung Program.
“She's really helped me and a lot of people, but there's so many people out there don't know that,” Chandler said. “They need to realize there is help.”
In November 2023, the federal Black Lung Benefits Improvement act was introduced in an effort to increase the monthly assistance given to sick miners. It has since been referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions for review.
Courtesy of a report from the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center and Appalachian Voices detailing the need for increased benefits for sick miners.
