Cases of black lung disease on the rise; NIOSH researchers find levels are highest in four decades

摘要

CASES OF SEVERE black lung disease, known as progressive massive fibrosis, have surged among coal miners in Central Appalachia to levels not seen in four decades, according to a letter published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Medicine. In 2012, the prevalence of severe black lung in miners in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky reached 3.2 percent, up from a low of 0.4 percent in 1998, according to findings published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. In 1974, the level was 3.3 percent for miners in those states, The Wall Street Journal reported.