Increasing Prevalence of Black Lung Fires Up Comp Reform Critics

The prevalence of black-lung disease is on the rise among longtime coal miners in the U.S., reaching 20% in central Appalachia, according to a new report that has inflamed criticism of workers’ comp reform legislation in Kentucky. The black-lung findings come from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and were published online last week in the American Journal of Public Health. The data’s publication coincides with the July 14 effective date of Kentucky’s House Bill 2, a workers’ comp reform bill that was signed into law in March. The wide-ran...