Roughly one in five miners in the Central Appalachia coalfields of West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia now have black lung disease, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Black lung, a devastating illness that scars lung tissue and makes breathing increasingly difficult, has made a comeback in the past two decades after hitting a low in the 1990s.

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Organizations: National Institute for Occupational Safety, Health Locations: Central Appalachia, West Virginia , Kentucky, Virginia