08-04-2018, 04:49 PM
Trump digs coal, huh?
About one in five coalminers in Kentucky will get black lung disease, which is deadly and little can be done about it. The reasons for this resurgence are simple: mechanization and the speed up of production have exposed miners to much more and finer dust which is the cause of the disease.
But there is a ploy to limit the mining companies liability, with the help of right-wingers, of course:
About one in five coalminers in Kentucky will get black lung disease, which is deadly and little can be done about it. The reasons for this resurgence are simple: mechanization and the speed up of production have exposed miners to much more and finer dust which is the cause of the disease.
But there is a ploy to limit the mining companies liability, with the help of right-wingers, of course:
Quote:Kentucky is at the center of what experts are calling the worst black lung epidemic on record. But instead of making it easier for miners to get access to health care, Kentucky’s lawmakers passed a law that may soon hinder miners’ ability to obtain workers’ compensation benefits. The new law, which goes into effect on July 14, bars federally certified radiologists from assessing coal miners’ X-rays in state black lung workers’ compensation claims. Instead, the state will require that only pulmonologists, physicians whose focus is lung disease, be allowed to judge X-rays for benefit claims. Right now, there are only 11 doctors in Kentucky who are certified to examine X-rays for state benefits claims, and the new law will cut that number down to five.Coal miners are dying of black lung, and a Kentucky law could make it harder to claim benefits – VICE News
“It doesn't make any sense from a medical perspective,” Centers for Disease Control epidemiologist and black lung expert Scott Laney told VICE News in an interview at the agency’s Morgantown, West Virginia, offices. The law could restrict coal miners’ access to care, he said. “Certainly it's going to restrict their access to disability compensation proceedings.” Moreover, of the five pulmonologists who will still be allowed to examine X-rays when state claims are filed, three have acted as expert witnesses on behalf of coal companies or their insurers as they sought to challenge miners’ benefit claims, as was reported by NPR in March. Because of this, many black lung experts and advocates say the law is an attempt by the coal industry to limit the amount of money they have to spend on coal miner healthcare in the midst of a mounting epidemic.
“I mean, it's anti-science, is what it is. It's absurd,” says Wes Addington, a lawyer at the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center who represents miners who make federal benefits claims. The CDC’s Laney agreed, explaining that there’s no evidence to suggest that a radiologist would be less qualified to diagnose black lung for a state benefit claim, compared with a pulmonologist. Federally certified radiologists may, in fact, be more qualified than pulmonologists in this matter because looking at X-rays is their specialty, he said.