Black lung disease diagnoses have been on the rise for two decades, affecting thousands of coal mining families across the country. The disease is incurable and progressive, meaning that it gets worse over time. One reason that it has been increasing, particularly in Appalachia where 20% of tenured miners have some form of the disease, is due to increased silica or rock dust within coal seams. Silica dust is more toxic than coal dust. With cases on the rise, it is more important than ever to preserve and improve the black lung benefits system. 

Families across the country rely on these disability benefits to replace lost wages when they can no longer work and assure that they have access to health insurance that pays for the cost of care for their disease. Using data from the Department of Labor, we’ve created a map that hints at the scale of the black lung crisis.

What’s the Black Lung Program? 

Congress created the Black Lung Program to provide necessary monetary and medical benefits to coal miners who suffer from the disease. These benefits are either paid for by a coal company or the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, which steps in when the coal company responsible has gone bankrupt or no longer exists. It’s usually a difficult process to apply for the benefits, and coal companies typically fight tooth and nail in court to deflect responsibility for paying coal miners what they’re owed. 

The black lung program pays a monthly disability payment, or stipend, to coal miners that increases depending on the number of dependents in the household. In 2024, the monthly payment was $772.60 for just the miner, but it increases to $1,158.90 if there is one dependent. Unfortunately, the monthly disability payment hasn’t kept up with inflation since it was created in 1969. If it had kept pace with inflation, a coal miner with black lung would have received $1,172 per month in 2024, a $400 difference monthly. 

Gaps in the system leave miners and their families struggling

The monthly disability payment has always been a crucial lifeline for coal mining families, but this is especially true now that miners are being diagnosed with black lung at younger ages due to increased silica dust exposure, with some miners contracting complicated black lung disease as young as their 30s. When a coal miner contracts black lung that young, that’s decades of lost income due to disability, making the monthly disability payment that much more important for them and their families. 

Although black lung rates are highest in Central Appalachia, it affects families in most states. In fact, almost every state has at least one person who is receiving black lung benefits. State-level data has long been available on the Department of Labor’s website. But for the first time ever, Appalachian Voices is able to provide the map showing zip code-level data, thanks to a public records request sent to the DOL. 

Recipients of Black Lung Benefits

Map credit: Matt Hepler, Appalachian Voices Source: Analysis of public records data received from Department of Labor, October 28, 2024. Note: Please wait for the map to load.

How you can help

Using this map, you can see how many people in your county and in your congressional district are receiving black lung benefits. This is a valuable tool to visualize how many people in your area are affected by this preventable disease. The map contains data for people who receive benefits through Part B and Part C of the Black Lung Program. Part B is for cases filed before Dec. 31, 1973, and Part C refers to cases filed after that date. 

This is certainly an undercount of the scale of the black lung crisis. Many coal miners are discouraged from applying for black lung benefits due to the complexity of the application process, and others are forced to fight for years for their black lung benefits in the legal system. 

Take action today

After taking a look at the map, we encourage you to reach out to your congressional representatives and ask them to increase the monthly black lung disability payment and ensure it permanently increases in line with yearly inflation rate. 

*Note: While the map is our best look yet at congressional and county-level data, there are some disclaimers to note. In the public records response, the DOL notes that zip codes for payments might not always correspond to where a black lung beneficiary lives. The data locates the beneficiary at the location of where the post office physically resides, which may not actually correspond with the congressional district of the beneficiary, but in most cases it will. Nevertheless, this is a starting point to expanding our understanding of the crisis.