Coal miners continue to be plagued with black lung disease at high rates, now attributed to smaller, thinner coal seams

Vedrana Filipovic via Sunsplash

Efforts to increase black lung benefits were highlighted in The Rural Blog in a July 14 post, and today we draw attention to a report about a growing number of black lung cases, decades since those benefits were signed into law.

In an Aug. 5 NPR report, Howard Berkes and Justin Hicks cite data in a letter from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), whose researchers “found that working veteran underground coal miners in central Appalachia are suffering from the incurable and fatal lung disease at the highest rates in nearly 50 years.” The research shows that miners in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia with as little as 15 years underground have contracted the disease at rates as high as those of 40 years ago. And 32.5% of those with 25 years in the mines tested positive for black lung in X-rays taken in the last five years. The study said that more than 1,700 died from the disease over the three-year period from 2020-2023.

Clinics in the region note that a spike in claims has come subsequent to recent mine closures, reversing an encouraging decline after Congress stiffened regulations limiting miners’ exposure to coal mine dust. Those regulations are credited with a drop in the presence of the disease that hit a low point in 1999, 30 years after the legislation was enacted. More retiring or laid off miners are now seeking benefits, and the results of their tests are raising concerns.

Industry representatives point to the fact that miners in the study were initially exposed years or decades ago. “These incidences do not reflect the conditions, practices, protections or regulations that are in place today,” said Ashley Burke, a National Mining Association spokesperson.

But miners say that companies have faced thinner seams as they go deeper into the source. “That requires cutting lots of rock, and in Appalachia, that rock typically contains quartz, which is rich in silica,” the NPR report states. “The result is clouds of both coal dust and highly toxic silica dust.”

“It’s like opening your front door and letting the sunshine [in],” one miner told NPR. “And then multiply that by 10 billion times. … It’s like a fog.”

While there is a high rate of compliance with government standards regarding the level of exposure to silica dust, a small level of overexposure still can lead to thousands of miners being at risk, the report states. A 2018 NPR and FRONTLINE investigation reviewed 30 years of data and found 21,000 instances of overexposure. They also found instances of complicated black lung in more than 4,000 miners since 2010.

Agriculture and Homeland Security departments increase coordination to attack screwworm with drones, AI

    

The Department of Agriculture announced this week that
a facility in Texas to produce sterile flies will open seven
months ahead of schedule. (USDA Photo)

Increased efforts by the federal government against the threat of the New World screwworm (NWS), along with other animal health concerns, have resulted in a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The move was announced at an event this week in Texas.

In a subsequent news release, USDA touted several key elements of the agreement, including “Unified Threat Detection” with the use of “unmanned aircraft systems and artificial intelligence.” Other elements addressed information sharing, biosecurity, operational awareness and research and development. The release stated that local, state and tribal partners were involved in the development of the MOU.

Jon Adamy reports in Michigan Farm News that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins also announced on X that a “$750 million sterile fly production facility at Moore Air Base will open seven months early, in spring 2027.” The department says the facility initially “will produce 100 million sterile flies per week,” eventually increasing to 300 million.

The post on X also revealed Rollins’ review of technology supporting 200 DHS drones, over 1,000 drone flights to survey over 22,000 animals. It also noted over 26,000 trail camera observations and monitoring more than 8,000 NWS traps.

In its news release, USDA stated a continued effort between the departments to thwart cattle smuggling from Central America. It is estimated that 800,000 head are smuggled each year. The crime involves about $320 million in illicit trade and can “often bypass sanitary inspection and traceability systems, allowing potentially diseased or unmonitored animals to move undetected across borders.” This further hampers the effort to eradicate NWS, the release stated.   

A century of one family’s reunions reflects the passage of time and the migration of youth from farms across the nation

     

The Putmans still operate dairy farms in New York but
as young members of their family choose other careers
and move away, the farms, and the reunions, have gotten
smaller. (Photo by Austin Santaniello via Unsplash)

The Putmans of upstate New York make the honored practice of getting the family together something more than special, and they have done it for 100 years. New York Times reporter John Leland, who took a road trip to witness the annual event, put it this way: “Lots of families hold reunions. The Putmans make theirs a serious business, with a president, a secretary, a budget, multiple prizes and a written ledger with notes from every year, starting with the second reunion.”

Leland aptly compares the changes apparent from the Putman reunion records to the changes farm families have experienced across America over the last century. And so do the Putmans.

“It is a story of younger people leaving their family farms for job opportunities elsewhere, of farm consolidation and loosening family connections,” Leland writes. In testimony after testimony, Putman family members told Leland of their decision decades ago to leave the family business for something more lucrative. “I knew I didn’t want to milk cows seven days a week,” said one Putman, now 86. “The dairy industry was a tough business, and they weren’t making any money.” In one family, none of the 10 children wanted to milk cows.

The 2025 reunion hosted just 26 members of the family. In years gone by, attendance often exceeded 100. Leland quotes the village historian: “Nobody stays,” she said. “We’re friendly, but there’s nothing to do here, like you can do in a bigger area.”

In a subsequent post in the story’s online reader comments, Leland may have expressed the same feelings as some of the Putmans still coming to the reunion from afar. He wrote:

Sometimes you commit to writing an article and then later think, “What did I get myself into?

That’s how I felt on the six-hour drive upstate. Then the day before the reunion, Janet Newtown showed me the ledger, going back to 1925. The paper was crumbling, and I wore white gloves to touch it. But it was a direct window into a world — not just a family, but a micro-history of small farming in the US, and a way of life for generations.

Sometimes, you’re glad you took that drive.

Solar-energy group that spent $2 million in Tennessee race takes credit for incumbent congressman's 6-point defeat

A rural Tennessee congressman lost his seat in Thursday's Republican primary election, and a solar-energy lobby is taking credit and sounding a warning to those who oppose the industry.

Rep. Andy Ogles
(Photo by Mark Humphrey, AP)

Rep. Andy Ogles of the recently redrawn Fifth District lost "after the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC spent $2 million — more than the combined spending of both Ogles and his challenger Charlie Hatcher," a former state agriculture commissioner, Timothy Cama reports for E&E News, a publication of Politico. Hatcher got 53 percent.

“Our goal is to make sure people choose not to cross the industry,” Tom Matzzie, CEO of solar company CleanChoice Energy and chair of the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition, told Politico. “I think this is by far our biggest step forward in terms of accomplishing our goal, and it definitively sends a signal that our deterrence is real, and that we will get involved.”

The PAC's spending against Ogles “was its biggest since launching earlier this year. It also got the most national attention, assisted by Ogles criticizing the group,” E&E News reports. “The super PAC, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, has spent in a handful of races this year, targeting what it sees as the top foes of the renewable energy sector. So far, that has mostly meant opposing the most vocal supporters of quickly ending renewable tax credits in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the signature GOP tax law, with advertising meant to appeal to conservative audiences.” That's a change for Matzzie. who worked for the AFL-CIO and ran MoveOn.org, a progressive group.

E&E News concludes, “President Donald Trump, who had endorsed Ogles in his race and hosted a tele-rally for him, appeared unfazed by the loss Friday, writing on Truth Social that the lawmaker 'had virtually no chance of winning' and calling Hatcher a 'Great "Trump" Candidate.'” The Nashville Banner notes, “Ogles has consistently generated controversy and scrutiny since emerging from a crowded Republican primary in 2022. He has filed incorrect and late campaign finance disclosures, misled the public about his resume and said 'Muslims don’t belong in American society.'”

Fracking brine from Ohio injection wells believed to be surfacing, potentially contaminating drinking water

   

Paul Alain Hunt via Sunsplash

Decades ago, the state of Ohio invited the oil and gas industry to inject wastewater into deep wells, which at the time didn’t seem like a major concession. The need wasn’t overwhelming, and to accommodate the industry the state even got permission from the federal government to regulate its own wells.

When fracking came along, the Buckeye State’s more friendly policies made it the go-to place for burying brine. According to a report in The New York Times, “Ohio has permitted more than 240 injection wells for the disposal of oil and gas waste. By comparison, there are 19 such injection wells in Pennsylvania, and a few dozen in West Virginia, both of which border Ohio.”

Quinn Glabicki further notes in her story that Pennsylvania, which produces more natural gas than any state but Texas, sends about three-fourths of its brine to Ohio, and that “Ohio pumps about 1.4 billion gallons of wastewater underground annually.”

Now there are reports of the toxic waste coming to the surface, traditional oil and gas wells being invaded by fracking brine, and concerns about the potential for contaminated drinking water in the rural communities near where injection is taking place. The industry is pushing back, claiming the state’s regulation is sufficient and that wells complying with those regulations are safe. But geologists say the brine is “migrating” through porous underground material and moving to the surface.

Environmental groups and communities are seeking a moratorium on new injection wells, and for any new wells to be a safe distance from drinking water sources. In Marietta, the county seat of Washington County, tests of the drinking water have indicated it is safe but the water association is concerned that if radioactive waste gets into the system it will be impossible to remove. Ground stability also is a concern. Officials told Glabicki that seismic activity in Washington County is 20 times what it was in 2023, suggesting that underground rock formations are unstable because of the volume of wastewater.