By the age of 44, Mr. Hoskins was diagnosed with his own case of the most severe form of black lung. Last year we cared for over 500 former coal miners with the most severe form of black lung, a record for the clinic’s 32-year history. By the end of the last century, thanks, in part, to federal safety standards, severe black lung had nearly been eliminated. But with changes in technology and conditions in coal mines in central Appalachia, cases of severe black lung disease are back to the highest level in decades after the last major study, in 2018. As of that year, more than one-fifth of experienced Appalachian miners have black lung.

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Persons: Denver Hoskins, Hoskins, Barbara Kingsolver’s Organizations: Cincinnati Reds, Division, Stone Mountain Health Services, Centers for Disease Control Locations: Kentucky, St, Charles, Va, Lee County, Appalachia —, Virginia , Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, Appalachia