My career was working at a law firm helping people who had asbestosis and silicosis. The callousness of certain companies when they knew the harm of asbestos and silica dust is not forgivable. We didn’t deal with miners, but it seems that every miner should at least have a cartridge respirator on every minute they are in a mine exposed to dust. Every regulatory agency that has any say-so over this environment needs to step in, right now.
One thing I kept thinking while watching this episode was, why not wear one of those fine particulate masks? The ones that have the full face mask that is attached to a hose that leads to a back mounted, or waist mounted, filter cartridge? Heck, even an N 95 would probably work well. In your work, did you ever get a reason as to why these miners don't wear any sort of facemasks?
@@hoosierbaddy3052 no, not necessarily. I think if a culture has been built around something and it's been done a certain way forever that someone would face ridicule for bucking the trend, despite long term health ramifications.
Koppel is a stark reminder of true journalism, compared to today's political clowns. We need more like him, but the networks are only interested in sensationalism & ratings.👍👍👍
This is heart breaking. My heart truly goes out to that young couple and all others affected by the monstrous negligence of these coal companies! I pray. 🙏
it happens worldwide, i worked for 40 years in gold mines in South Africa, it only goes about profit,luckily I only workerd for about 12 years underground, its hell working underground in those conditions,
*This country could use 100 more Ted Koppel's!* An example of what a news journalist should aspire to be. I grew up in a coal mining region, black lung was an issue, but now the coal industry is gone and the problems remain, with little or no support for the damage they brought in the name of profits. When you hear removing regulations is "good", think again. It is good financially for the people at the top, the middle and bottom are the ones that suffer.
General Motors Corporation left their flagship town to ruin. They do not care. Maximize profits over any of the people they expect to buy their products. 😂 It's amazing that they think folks can afford what their pushing without the income to back it up.
The irony of this guy promoting similar disease provoking pollution such as diesel exhaust on his tee shirt is impressive. all these American men bought and sold by companies perpetrating the insanity that is truck culture.
Last month, Republican Congresswoman Carol Miller voted against a little known section of the government funding bill that could have reduced the deadly silica dust that miners breathe in. In the words of her spokesperson, the funding would have represented “a resurgence on the war on coal meant to destroy our communities and usher in a radical socialist agenda “. Working for better safety conditions for coal miners should be a top priority of any elected official, especially a Congresswoman who represents the coalfields of West Virginia.
This is why I am a union man - all the way. These companies will NEVER change their practices unless they are forced to do so. And the treatment these miners have been subjected to by these companies and by the complicity of the government - local, state, and national, - explains why they are so very angry with government. It is time for a change, people. Big time!
You are just an employee number and they will replace you faster than you can sneeze. They need to bring back manufacturing jobs for them. Stop coal altogether
24 year UMWA here . The union had very limited power to sway the laws . The UMWA was flat out out moneyed and out politicked . How the hell Joe Manchin and Mitch McConnell have stayed in office and claimed to have helped the miners is beyond me. They should be held personally responsible for all the current black lung cases . Just goes to show people will vote against their best interests. My dad died of black lung in March of 2022 from a Colorado open pit mine it’s not limited to underground mines . I had to retire and go on disability at 58 with 70% loss of lung capacity and was told I didn’t qualify for black lung benefits
Or you could just QUIT? Or, you can agree to sign a percentage of your paycheck to corrupt Union bosses that only want kickbacks, as they hold your pension over your head if you fall out of line. What a tough choice!
They've known how dangerous silica is even before they understood what Black Lung was. I was in the Navy with a guy from Welsh WV. He told me that his grandfather wouldn't allow him to work in the mines, and his dad wouldn't allow him to work in the mines. So he joined the Navy like his dad did. His grandfather was an executive for a coal company until the riots in 1973, "Bloody Harlan. He went back to school and used his GI Bill to become a teacher. He had no illusions about the future of the miners that worked for him.
its all over like that, i worked for 40 years on gold mines in South Africa, 12 years underground, its hell to work at the face of the rock,I was luckily an artisan so diidnt do any mining itslef, was a boilermaker, rest was above ground, it only goes about profoit for the bosses, thy earn massive salaries and monthly bonuses and yearly profit sharing, an asbestos mine in south Africa had to pay millons of pounds out to workers who contracted silicosis, but only after taking the matter to a britsh court as the owners were british,but it okk so many eyars before the case was settled, many of them had dies by the time court case ended,
God bless coal miners. My husband is a coal miner. He did 10 years in the WV mines, now he’s mining in Alabama. We moved to AL to give our children a better life and more opportunities. We bleed gold and blue but the politicians have been running WV into the ground for decades. They only want to focus on tourism. We’re hoping a job opportunity comes up in AL for my husband to get out of the mine. I deeply love my husband. He literally lays down a piece of his life every day to provide for his family. I tell him all the time we can live on less, just get out of that mine.
There isn’t one single young coal miner in WV that hasn’t grown up seeing men with silicosis, black lung and mesothelioma. But they grow up, go into the mines (don’t take the personal responsibility to wear protective equipment, whether the company requires it or not) and expect something different to happen to them than what happened to those who came before them. Before you get tied down with bills, debt and family responsibilities, stop and think about your future and get the h*** out of WV and take control of your own future, and that of your future family, instead of expecting a company to look out for you.
miners are literally bred to do your dirty work. they are bred to be risk minimisers otherwise they wouldnt have gone underground in the first place. its not one or two generations deep, its not a new thing. mining is an ancient slaving trade. chicken !@#$ clerical workers just wont understand. its not like the afterthought of an MBA you got, you dont just wake up and say im going to do something different any more than that shrub wants to be a tree or vice versey. mendacity and mining dont mix - selfishness gets people killed down there. ...and thats how the camel got those humps.
The coal companies need to stop taking advantage of these people's ignorance and lack of options. It's nice to see so many people encouraging young people to stay out of the mines. West Virginia needs to develop other industries. Coal mining as the main source of income leads to increased poverty, black lung disease, diseases caused by pollution, and a monopoly on the economy by unscrupulous coal mining executives.
I noticed Kevin wasn't wearing a mask 😷 even at 18 working in the mines 😔 Wearing masks to filter out the silica dust should have been a requirement YEARS ago. It seems the trade-off for making a lot of money early is a shorter life span 😢. I pray 🙏 Kevin lives a long life for himself and the sake of his children 🙏.
I definitely pray for Mr Kevin & his family & all coal miner families. The rates of black lung in young workers should be a clear indication that safety isn’t followed nor is it a concern in the coal industry, ie no masks not even an N-95 mask & no dust pump & so on. Department of labor fails to put in enforcement mechanisms, no fines or penalties for violations other than showing the ones who truely are penalized are the employees & their families with black lung. Where is OSHA, drinking coffee & eating donuts with the ceos? Would you ask a fireman to fight a a fire with no protective equipment or ask law enforcement to do their job with no bullet proof vest? 🙏
I can believe that coal companies are like this because most companies are like this. Maybe most people are like this, too. I work in IT. More than a decade ago, I worked as a help desk agent providing internal support for our field technicians, coordinating job sites and shipping parts in the computer system. I typed so much that I had to have physical therapy on my hands. The pain became more pervasive and my hands and arms burned much of the time. Sometimes, I could hardly sleep at night from the pain. Or, maybe I'd get the flu, or a sinus infection, or some other health problem. One of my supervisors told me that if I told him about a problem, he would have to send me home, but he said I didn't have to tell him. Just keep working without telling him when I was ill or hurt. Eventually, they decided that I wasn't meeting their new metrics, so they fired me. I've worked a lot of jobs a lot of places in different industries. It's pretty much the same attitude everywhere. Everybody breaks the rules to get stuff done.
There is no reason on earth to continue to mine coal in West Virginia. To the extent that we need to mine coal at all, it can be done more safely and cheaply, and less destructively, in open-pit mines in states like Wyoming and Montana.
There was a teacher and football coach at the Oak Hill high school in the 1970s named Rosevelt Lynch that left teaching to enter the mines and was one of the casualties of the upper big branch mine explosion. Don Blankenships Massey coal company by cutting corners with safety killed a lot of good men for a good profit margin.
I went to work in coal mines when i was a teenager, and i would come home covered in coal dust, people laughing at me about it. Also there was other rock dust that was stirred up all the time. There was no safety at all in the mine as the boss thought it took too much time. He would get a call from someone that a state safety inspector was on the way, and he would have us rush around quickly to sort of make it look like the safety rules were being followed. I would guess a lot of inspectors take bribes to go easy on the company and not grade things very hard.
Not once in the story was the subject of masks and protection even mentioned. Why are miners not wearing breathing protection? Very poorly constructed story that failed to present the real issues.
Not one ounce of disrespect,(family originated in Virgina) But isn't the never ending coal fire burning in Pennsylvania already not a warning? Besides the black lung disease? Mother Nature doesn't want you to do this anymore. We have to move away from this dangerous work. Stop the production, stop the problem. That man and all the other men are dear loved ones for their families. Bring back our manufacturing, set up shop in West Virginia, and Virginia. Let these hard working people have a better life.
if you cannot imagine beyond being "stuck' in a coal mine there are few ways to convince folks you can live well and succeed with green industries... it's up to each + every individual
Reminds me a bit of Erin Brokovich; companies principally thinking about the bottom line and not the welfare of the people. Seeing only what they want to see, knowing there's little or no teeth in the rules. 😢
Very best regards to Kevin & family from Chicago, viewers pray for you good people. Great to see that Ted & his producers still give a s---, but they need to take the interview to the mine owner & operator's front porches, yesterday.
I've played with Glass Mosaic making. Silica is the base material in making glass. Grind it down you've got beach sand which is largely made of Silica. Grind it down even farther you've got silica dust. I would never play with that without a finely filtered face mask. Even as dust, silica can be sharp enough to cut through the lungs from the inside. I can only imaging what modern miners must go through.
I cannot believe in this modern age that Black Lung is still part of the coal industry. How much does a box of N-95 masks cost?? Nothing to a coal company! Right and a N-95 mask would help with black lung. My grandfather was a coal mine owner and superintendent he suffered from black lung for most of his adult life and he has been gone since 1992. There are very affordable respirators that coal miners could use. Half of this is on the coal companies and the other half is the people who went into the mines without any form of respirator.
I first heard about this stuff about fifty years ago...and had assumed thing were getting better. This is eye-opening. The behavior of the coal companies doesn't surprise me one bit, though, because this is pretty much the way they've always behaved. I just had the impression that more was being done to improve conditions for the miners.
Why didnt we ask about why they dont wear breathing apparatus? Where is the company issued masks? Theres a international tort law that applies Intentional torts cases may involve exposure, equipment failures or unguarded machinery. Intentional tort cases can also apply in employment situations in which an employer may be held responsible for an employee's actions. This can include workplace injuries involving industrial and manufacturing accidents.
There are no company issued masks. Breathing apparatus would not always be practical. Many mines are less than 4 feet in height. The safety equipment now required makes the miners' belt weight 40 pounds. There definitely needs to be improvement but the main thing that needs to change is company attitude. If an inspector is not on the property, many companies totally ignore the safety laws.
MSHA only shows up once a quarter and doesn't have time to check everything. MSHA isn't an enforcer. The company can contest every violation and get it dismissed. Not one mining company cares about the miner, they care about profits and bonuses. Mine Safety is there to protect the company, not the miner. I've seen shift supervisors applaud and praise the guys coming out of the mine with black faces. They frown on the guys with clean faces that wore respiratory protection, they get mocked, ostracized in front of the whole shift.
I definitely pray for Mr Kevin & his family & all coal miner families. The rates of black lung in young workers should be a clear indication that safety is no safety mechanism by companies nor is it a concern in the coal industry, ie no masks not even an N-95 mask & no dust pump & so on. Department of labor fails to put in enforcement mechanisms, no fines or penalties for violations other than showing the ones who truely are penalized are the employees & their families with black lung. Where is OSHA, drinking coffee & eating donuts with the ceos? Would you ask a fireman to fight a a fire with no protective equipment or ask law enforcement to do their job with no bullet proof vest? 🙏
@@heythave yeah but it probably takes out a certain percentage of dust. Maybe wearing 3 n95 masks might really help. I mean, its your life right there... Its better than nothing
The majority of local pulmonologist are paid off by coal companies. A reversal to this would benefit coal miners. Radiologists also should be able to (under the law) decide if a coalminer has black lung, not just pulmonologist.
Unions have annual black lung screening which doesn't compare from your very first x-ray to the latest, they only compare year to year. Which is all to protect the union and not the miner.
The introduction of diesel equipment in the mine is, "in my opinion the leading cause that miners are getting black lung earlier in life and at an increased rate". I know they say it won't hurt you but that is what they said years ago about coal dust too.
I worked in a zinc mine for a few years. We had safety meetings . There were certain things that we were taught. But to make more money we sometimes skip the rules. And I did make more. Luckily I got out of the mine.
You really need to understand what/how miner's are paid before you chime in on something you completely don't understand. Coal miners can be paid a certain wage & then get double time & even triple time pay for their work. So before going off on a stupid rant please try to learn first. When my dad was able to work in the mines we lived pretty good. But when he broke his back & neck we starved, yes literally starved... Social Security even turned him down for disability pay although he was not able to work for 8 years! Finally he told the doctor to either clear him or he'd find another who would. He had a wife & 3 kids to feed. We grew up poor. But we were happy at the time & never knew what we missed because we were loved so much.
@@roadiez1 I was hoping when I wrote that that someone who knew the "how" would shed some light on the subject. I sure wasn't expecting to be called stupid in the process.
Don't pick on me now but, it's there a reason they can't or won't wear masks or ventilator masks? Any preventative measures that can be taken for these poor guys.
You know why, because none of the wear dusk masks. I have worked underground since 1979, coal, trona, and molybdenum, and one thing i have noticed, most coal miners dont wear dust masks even in the worst conditions. After a local coal mine laid off many of them came to the trona mine i work at now, and i have yet to see one of them put on a dust mask, even when running the miner.
Dude is wearing a ‘Diesel Truck Army’ shirt. So hypocritical to be complaining about mining pollution and health hazards and then drive a truck that kicks out a bunch of toxic chemicals we breathe. Does no one see the ridiculousness of this?
If the can mandate wearing for a fake pandemic safety precautions and not make it a requirement for a sure and proven hazard in an occupation like a miner doesn't make any sense. It looks like an ounce of prevention to me and a no brainer even for the toughest of miners out there.
Black lung disease has long been understood to come from mining coal. First: Stop Mining Coal. Second: why aren’t there any PPE for the workers ? Third: Fine owners Millions of dollars per day until satisfactory conditions exist Cheers From California 😊
an asbestos mine in South Africa had to pay out millions of pounds to those workers who contracted silicosis a few years ago,I worked for 40 years in gold mines in South Africa, of which around 12 years was underground, the rest was above ground in the gold plant as we called it, yes I agree with you, the bosses sitting in the management level do not care,it only went about profit for them, until a few years ago lung cancer among underground workers was common until they changed the air circulation underground,the bosses are only interested in profit or gold, they earn massive salaries, monthly bonuses and yearly profit sharing, ride companies cars every second year, while underground workers work under harsh circumstances,
The coal companies need to stop taking advantage of these people's ignorance and lack of options. It's nice to see so many people encouraging young people to stay out of the mines. West Virginia needs to develop other industries. Coal mining as the main source of income leads to increased poverty, black lung disease, diseases caused by pollution, and a monopoly on the economy by unscrupulous coal mining executives.
I worked in the coal mines for 26 years and thay say i do not have Black lung but I have had hard time breathing I’ve tried to times to get my federal black lung .
Sad thing is, West Virginia is ranked near the bottom for education, and has almost a 20 % poverty rate.... And with coal mining jobs disappearing, the poverty rate will unfortunately increase....
For all, the truth to see. Labor is the cheapest part of the job. Construction is much the same. Now we have "migrants" pouring in for years. If you don't want the job, another body will fill that position and probably for less money. Just sayin.
If DARPA has done extensive research on the effects of EMF, Electro-Magnetic Pulses, on different materials, then could DARPA create a setup, where they put a Black lung patient on an electrostatic charged table, that’d rigged to pass an electrostatic charge through his chest, so that a very specific EMF projection through his torso, will disintegrate the microscopic particles of coal or Silicon, or Asbestos SELECTIVELY, into stray molecules that the patient can simply cough up, or his immune system eliminate, leaving his lungs clean and functional?
Good question. Joe Manchin doesn't give a sh*t about his constituents. Joe Manchin is not going to help these people. The sad thing is that there is no one that's going to help them. And the Republicans will try to take away their health care.
In California where 10 percent renewable energy which means it takes 220 lb of wood chips or 90 lb of cold to charge a Tesla every charge we'd mind a lot less cold if we are trying to produce fuel for necessary reasons and not Tesla's an electric cars that we do not have the infrastructure to support yet
Mines don’t give a crap about this, I used to be covered in molybdenum to the point my gloves and clothes were silver.. Respirators nope, masks no.. Sad to be honest.
The u.s should partner with Huawei the chinese telecommunications company and adopt autonomous 5 g mines with no humas working in mines. just computers.
This just shows you how bad America became after the pandemic the economy, change, society changed, and how our government changed, the only thing that seems to be so important in this country is money there’s a saying money makes the world go round I resent that
😢😢😢 for those who still have doubts, what artificial intelligence should be used for, mining and certain dangerous jobs should be done by android robots and computers so no further worker should have to face any further health problems due to mining jobs, get in action and ask...no more human workers only remote control RoboCop android robots Ok?
It’s sad and disgusting how big business can care less about the worker. They helped build an empire and the empire is killing them all off. Trump wants Coal at the expense of his voters lives.
