Read the winning stories from the 2025 PBS KIDS Writers Contest at WVPB!
Shannon Silverman guides us through the cosmos above West Virginia.
On Demand
On Demand
Watch locally produced documentaries & more.
On Demand
On Demand
West Virginia Morning
Inside Appalachia
West Virginia Week
Mountain Stage
Us & Them
The Legislature Today
Send us your comments and questions.
Stream our board meetings.
Check out the latest WVPB news.
Sign up for our newsletter and get weekly updates.
Meet the WVPB staff.
WV Educational Broadcasting Authority, the WVPB Foundation, and the Friends of WVPB.
Come work with us!
Sponsor impactful and engaging media and entertainment.
Use your IRA to make a gift to WVPB.
Become a member with your gift of $1,000 or more.
Make WVPB part of your legacy.
Manage your membership account.
Learn how you can Protect and Sustain West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Updated on Oct. 10, 2023 at 11:30 a.m.
Black lung disease is back. In fact, it never went away. Now, younger and younger miners are living with a particularly nasty form of black lung disease.
Regulators and the coal industry have known about the problem for decades — but they’ve been slow to respond.
One reporter asks, “What would happen if thousands of workers in any other industry got sick and died just because of where they worked?”
This week, we’re talking about the black lung epidemic, Inside Appalachia.
In This Episode:
Advanced black lung is rampant across the coal-producing regions of central Appalachia, in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia.
This is different from simple black lung, which is debilitating, but advanced black lung is known as progressive massive fibrosis. It’s the result of miners digging at increasingly thin coal seams. To get at the coal, they cut into quartz, which creates silica dust.
Breathing the mix of silica and coal dust is much more destructive, and like simple black lung, there is no cure.
Advanced black lung has been documented for decades, but it’s getting new attention from federal officials.
As part of our special program, we aired a 2018 NPR segment with Howard Berkes, where he met with dozens of Appalachian miners with advanced black lung disease.
Most coal production has been declining for years, but the metallurgical coal industry has been ramping up production to meet global demand. With increased demand, experts predict more cases of black lung. After years of inaction though, federal officials are addressing the issue.
Over the summer, the Mine Safety and Health Administration proposed a rule intended to protect coal miners from exposure to silica dust.
By the time the comment period closed in September, the draft rule had attracted 157 comments.
WVPB’s Emily Rice reported.
Howard Berkes has continued to report on advanced black lung, even after retiring from NPR. Recently, he helped lead a new investigation into advanced black lung cases, co-published by Public Health Watch, Louisville Public Media and Mountain State Spotlight.
Mason Adams spoke with Berkes about what they found.
——
Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by John Hurlbut and Jorma Kaukonen, Tim Bing, June Carter Cash and Steve Earle.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
You can find us on Instagram, Threads and Twitter @InAppalachia. Or here on Facebook.
Sign-up for the Inside Appalachia Newsletter!
Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
***Editor’s note: The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration collected 157 comments on its proposed silica dust rule. A previous version of this story misstated the number of comments the agency received.
On this West Virginia Week, we have the latest on devastating floods to hit two counties in the northern part of the state. We’ll also talk about West Virginians' efforts to halt Medicaid cuts. And, we learn about reviving black coal camps in McDowell County — through farming.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsThis week, Inside Appalachia,, a hospital in Western North Carolina was bought out. Residents say the quality of care has gone down. Also, an immersion school in North Carolina is trying to revitalize the Cherokee language with the help of a printmaking class. And, a pair of artists follow cicada hatchings to make art from their shells.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsConservation groups including the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and Appalachian Voices can proceed with a lawsuit and administrative appeals against South Fork Coal.
Continue Reading Take Me to More NewsIn the early 20th century, the coal industry was booming in Appalachia. That made the region a destination for Black migrants from the Deep South, who were moving northward in search of new jobs. Black communities thrived in Appalachia during the boom. But as coal employment declined, Black coal camps began to dwindle. Now, a West Virginia man is reviving one of those coal camps — through farming. Tiara Brown reports with support from Black By God, the West Virginian.
Continue Reading Take Me to More News
