A New Investigation Into Black Lung And Our Song Of The Week, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, advanced black lung disease, or progressive massive fibrosis, is rampant across coal country. It’s caused when miners breathe in quartz rock dust as they try to get at seams of coal. Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams recently spoke with Howard Berkes about a new investigation into advanced black lung cases he helped lead that was co-published by Public Health Watch, Louisville Public Media and Mountain State Spotlight.

Also, in this show, our Mountain Stage Song of the Week comes to us from world-renowned jazz singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli. We listen to his performance of “I Want to Be Happy.”

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Our Appalachia Health News project is made possible with support from CAMC and Marshall Health.

West Virginia Morning is produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Caroline MacGregor, Chris Schultz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.

Eric Douglas is our news director. Caroline MacGregor is our assistant news director and producer.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning