Black Lung: Disease

The Air Down There: A Miner's Story on Developing Black Lung

But now, standing in his own backyard in West Virginia, Elias knew the price was much higher. He looked at his grandson, Caden, who was splashing in the creek a few yards away. Elias wanted to join him, to show him how to catch crawdads, but his world had shrunk to the length of a clear plastic tube. He adjusted the oxygen tank in his daypack, the weight of it a constant reminder of the "clamp around his chest". black lung disease

Every few steps was a battle. He had chairs spaced out along the short path to the creek—islands of safety where he could sit and wait for his breath to come back, a process that took longer every day. The Air Down There: A Miner's Story on