It was a bit surprising to see Ted Koppel standing on the sidelines of a high school football game last season between Oak Hill and Buckhannon-Upshur in Fayette County as part of a piece for a national audience that aired on CBS Sunday Morning over the weekend.
Koppel’s instantly recognizable and almost soothing voice talked about the traditions that span generations in West Virginia, with coal mining naturally part of that list — although it wasn’t on the list of occupations that coaches or fans gave to Koppel as it pertained to the livelihoods of players after high school.
“Today? No chance of going into the coal mines,†Don Barrett told Koppel during the game. Barrett spent 23 years in the mines and, like many, exited when he contracted black lung.
“I graduated high school on a Friday. Monday morning, I was in the coal mine,†Barrett said. “My dad worked the coal mine, my granddad worked the coal mine, my brothers worked the coal mine. This still is coal country, but not like it used to be.â€
To almost all West Virginians, this is a very familiar story. Coal was king, and miners, while doing dangerous work for companies that cared more about the bottom line than their employees, did make a good living. Then came automation and mountaintop removal. Mining jobs plummeted. Even when the jobs were plentiful, black lung was a risk.
Koppel’s report then took a turn familiar to anyone who has been following trends and worker health issues in the coal industry: Black lung was on the decline after years of regulatory battles but, for years now, cases have been spiking and affecting miners at much younger ages. The condition is irreversible and, eventually, fatal.
The problem, as has been explained multiple times, is silica dust kicked up from depleted coal seams. Koppel shows in the piece that it’s not news to him, either.
“You tell me if I’m oversimplifying it,†Koppel says to respiratory therapist Lisa Emery, who is seen working with a miner who has developed severe black lung at age 35. “They’re having to drill through more rock to get to the coal, and the rock dust, paradoxically, is more damaging to the lungs even than the coal dust is.â€
Emery confirms that’s the basic problem.
The story then shifts to the federal government. The Biden administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration tried to implement new restrictions on how much silica dust miners can legally be exposed to by half (going off a recommendation dating all the way back to 1975). Disappointingly but perhaps not unsurprisingly, Congress killed the new rule. Presidential administrations and regulatory agencies have been trying to cut down on silica exposure in the mines for decades, but the coal lobby always seems to find a way to make sure it never happens.
Even if the measure did pass, there’s skepticism among mine workers and labor unions that it would actually be enforced. Stories of mine operations cutting corners on worker safety unless it’s a day when they’ve been notified that an inspector is arriving are as interwoven into the history and culture of the coal industry as folk songs decrying the company store.
Hopefully, shining a light on the issue from a platform as large as CBS Sunday Morning can help inspire change. But hope is a fickle commodity in the coal industry.
