Struggling for Breath in Coal Country (re-release)

The FRONTLINE Dispatch

GBH

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2023

⏱️ 16 minutes

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Summary

A new rule proposed by the Labor Department could help limit coal miners' exposure to a toxic dust called silica.

“The purpose of this proposed rule is simple: prevent more miners from suffering from debilitating and deadly occupational illnesses by reducing their exposure to silica dust,” Chris Williamson, assistant secretary for mine, safety and health, said in a statement. “Silica overexposures have a real-life impact on a miner’s health.”

Williamson has said the proposal was inspired, in part, by FRONTLINE and NPR’s 2019 investigation, which exposed a link between silica dust and an epidemic of severe black lung disease.

Our documentary Coal’s Deadly Dust highlighted the resurgence of black lung — and how federal regulators and the industry had failed to protect miners.

“Struggling for Breath in Coal Country” was originally released alongside the film in 2019. In this archival episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch, correspondent Howard Berkes spoke with coal miners whose lives were forever changed when they were diagnosed with the disease.

Coal’s Deadly Dust is streaming at pbs.org/frontline, in the PBS App and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A new role proposed by the Labor Department could help limit coal miners' exposure to
0:08.5	a toxic dust called silica.
0:11.6	The agency's top-mind safety regulator says the proposal was inspired in part by a frontline
0:17.2	and NPR investigation, which exposed a link between silica dust and an epidemic of severe
0:23.2	black lung disease.
0:25.2	Our 2019 documentary, Coal's Deadly Dust, highlighted the resurgence of black lung and
0:31.6	how federal regulators in the industry had failed to protect miners.
0:36.4	Today we revisit an earlier episode of the Dispatch, struggling for breath in coal country.
0:42.4	We love working in a coal area, it's coal mines, it's how we provided for our families.
0:48.2	Correspondent Howard Burkis spoke with coal miners whose lives were forever changed when
0:52.8	they were diagnosed with the disease.
0:55.4	I can somebody ever hold you in underwater till you thought you were going to drown.
0:59.6	That's about what it's like, you know, when you had a lung attack.
1:02.6	I can't go climb mountains, I can't go fishing.
1:05.6	Couldn't play ball with my grandstands, I feel like failure.
1:08.9	I'm Rainier and St. Roth, Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer of Frontline,
1:13.2	and this is the Frontline Dispatch.
1:16.2	The Frontline Dispatch is made possible by the Abrams Foundation,
1:22.7	committed to excellence in journalism, and by the Frontline Journalism Fund,
1:27.1	with major support from John and Joanne Hagler.
1:30.1	Support for Frontline Dispatch comes from the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center,
1:34.5	dedicated to providing the latest therapies and cancer specialists who are experienced in your
	...

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