Coal Companies Aim to Cut the Tax They Pay to Support Black-Lung Miners
The Washington Post cited SPH's Dr. Robert Cohen, director of the Mining Education and Research Center, in a story on the financial stability of the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, which is funded by coal companies to support the healthcare needs of miners with Black Lung disease. Coal companies are seeking to reduce their payments to the trust due to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak.
Cohen noted that Black Lung disease is on the rise in the United States due to advances in mining technology.
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Robert Cohen, a doctor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who specializes in black lung disease, says that new technology allows the miners to cut through the rock above, below and around the coal seam, and that the silica that gets thrown off is 20 times more toxic than coal dust.