The black lung crisis deepens in Appalachia

I'm Aisha Roscoe and this is the Sunday story. Back in 2023, we brought you a story about the resurgence of black lung disease among coal miners. The doctor says my lungs started shutting down. I said it's hardened just like a lump of coal. Gets bad when you walk outside and All that hair out there and you can't get none in your lungs.

Parents is trying to take a bag of trash out. Steps and heels. I can even walk up my driveway and check the mailbox. You get up hacking, spittin' black and blood. Coughing to the point of almost throwin' up.

That episode, Cole's Deadly Dust, documents failed efforts to prevent this deadly disease and what those failures have meant for minors, their families, and their communities. We're gonna die from it. There's no cure for it. Is a death sentence. And knowing that that's coming to you. It's pretty hard to take.

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