Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
The “Glocal” Challenges of Coal Extraction and Black Lung Disease Among Miners
Session Abstract or Summary
Coal has garnered a great deal of attention in our current political landscape. Coal mining is often touted as a longstanding pillar of Appalachian history and culture; however, few are aware of the changing dynamics of coal in the United States and globally. While coal is still used to produce approximately 30 percent of our energy in the United States, domestic coal is increasingly exported to other regions of the world. For example, between 2017-2018, coal exports to Asia grew by 76.8 percent. Appalachian coal, in particular, has changed drastically in recent years due to the depletion of easily accessible coal seams. Despite the decline of coal in the United States, a deadly and growing resurgence of black lung is taking place in central Appalachia. Concurrent with the rise in black lung diagnoses, the Black Lung Benefits Trust Fund continues to dwindle, leading to potential economic devastation for those who rely on these resources for healthcare benefits. What does this mean for Appalachian miners? How do these issues compare with other mining regions in the world? This panel seeks to bring together regional and international scholars and researchers from the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) for a well-rounded discussion about coal extraction, black lung prevalence, legislative pitfalls, and the disease experience of miners who have black lung. Researchers will bring with them a diverse set of methodological approaches including in-depth interviews, ethnography, and longitudinal quantitative data in an effort to engage diverse communities in our conversation about how to sustain the well-being of coal miners across the globe in innovative ways.
Presentation #1 Title
The Changing Landscape of Appalachian Coal Extraction and its Externalities
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Coal has garnered a great deal of attention in our current political landscape, yet few are aware of the changing dynamics of coal in the United States and globally. The purpose of this presentation is to offer an update on Appalachian coal mining issues including: changes in production and use, bankruptcies, the resurgence of black lung, and legislative pitfalls surrounding the Black Lung Benefits Trust Fund. Using existing data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, I will provide a detailed look at the current coal landscape in the United States. Discussion will include specifics regarding energy generation in the United States, coal production, and export markets. Additionally, I will provide a detailed look at the problem of resurgent black lung in central Appalachia using in-depth interviews and participant observation data. Major findings will highlight the growing problem of black lung in central Appalachia and related issues of culpability, i.e. who will pay as the Black Lung Benefits Trust Fund continues to decline? This presentation is intended to be one segment of the “The ‘Glocal’ Challenges of Coal Extraction and Black Lung Disease Among Miners” panel.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Aysha A. Bodenhamer is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Radford University. She is a broadly trained sociologist with teaching and research interests in a number of substantive areas including: environmental sociology, sociology of health & illness, rural sociology, and public sociology. Her research involves the intersection of environmental sociology, inequality, and occupational health. In particular, much of her research focuses on energy, from extraction to waste disposal and its impact on communities and workers. Bodenhamer is currently examining the contestation of black lung disease among coal miners in central Appalachia. In this multifaceted research project, she analyzes the ways in which black lung victims and their supporters confront the illness and challenge various agencies and institutions for redress, as well as the ways in which elites contest illness claims.
Presentation #2 Title
Life in the Death Zones of Black Lung: Reflections from China
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
This paper focuses on the “slow violence” of deadly non-curable dust diseases like Black Lung, from which a six million miners in China suffer. I focus in particular on how labor activists, former miners, charity organizations, and others are working to bring visibility, compensation, and justice to those who suffer from this incurable disease. I ask how miners and activists and those involved in the feminization of care for the ill understand the “rights” of the dying. How various forms of care and struggles for justice open up new pathways for being and belonging for the most precarious and marginalized of China’s migrant laboring classes: those who labor deep beneath the ground and whose slow dying remain all but hidden in dominant narratives of economic progress, national growth, and the China Dream. Finally, this paper observes that our lives – and the lives of many of the miners – are highly dependent on the deep earth minerals that fuel our digital media, smart phones, computers, batteries, and so much of our electronically-mediated lives. How do we speak of environmental justice, sustainable citizenship and alternative planetary futures when the extractive industries continue to plunder the earth and draw workers and families into these underground death zones?
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Ralph Litzinger is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. His early research focused on the culture and politics of ethnicity, nationalism, and post-socialism in China. He is the author of Other Chinas: the Yao and the Politics of National Belonging (2000), the first major ethnographic study to examine the work and writing of minority intellectuals in China. He has published key essays on the transnational and media dimensions of anti-dam protest in southwest China; on global environmental NGOs and the privatization of nature; on the transnational activism directed at Apple and the companies that source its supply chain; and on the emerging field of global media ecologies. More recently, Litzinger is the co-editor of Ghost Protocols: Development and Displacement in Global China (Duke University Press, 2016). He is currently working on two book projects, Migrant Futures: Education and Labor in Global China, and Black Lung: An Ethnography of Dust, a collaborative project with former students, miners and labor activists in China.
Presentation #3 Title
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Updates on Black Lung in Central Appalachia
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
See individual submission.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
David J. Blackley is an epidemiologist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Morgantown, West Virginia. He was assigned to NIOSH as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer in 2013, and focused on the epidemiology of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (black lung) in Appalachia. He also studies occupational safety and health in the U.S. oil and gas extraction and commercial fishing industries. Internationally, David has worked to enhance respiratory health surveillance in the Zambian mining workforce, and during 2014–2015, he deployed to Liberia and Sierra Leone to fight the Ebola epidemic.
Presentation #4 Title
Drowning In Dust
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
“Drowning in Dust” explores the impact of coal workers pneumoconiosis and progressive massive fibrosis on lives and communities in Central Appalachia. Through oral history interviews, photographs, and video, this project is elevating stories of miners, family members, legal representatives and clinical providers to local, regional, national, and international levels. Documenting the story behind the data, research seeks to align lived experiences with quantitative data to identify the true burden of black lung disease in Southwest Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, Southern West Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. Research will explore how lived experience confirms, supports, questions, and challenges the quantitative data showing a dramatic increase of these diseases. With an emphasis on perceived risk, experience with safety equipment, barriers to screening, experiences after diagnosis, benefits process and quality of life this project will reveal the factors associated prevention, early detection, screening, treatment, and the long-term impact on families and communities.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Margaret Tomann serves as Director of Healthy Appalachia Institute at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, addressing public health challenges through collaborative, community-based approaches. Margaret designed and developed the Minor in Public Health at UVa-Wise and works to engage undergraduates in public health education, research and practice. She attended Villanova University, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and is working towards a graduate certificate in Appalachian Studies through Radford University.
The Changing Landscape of Appalachian Coal Extraction and its Externalities
Coal has garnered a great deal of attention in our current political landscape, yet few are aware of the changing dynamics of coal in the United States and globally. The purpose of this presentation is to offer an update on Appalachian coal mining issues including: changes in production and use, bankruptcies, the resurgence of black lung, and legislative pitfalls surrounding the Black Lung Benefits Trust Fund. Using existing data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, I will provide a detailed look at the current coal landscape in the United States. Discussion will include specifics regarding energy generation in the United States, coal production, and export markets. Additionally, I will provide a detailed look at the problem of resurgent black lung in central Appalachia using in-depth interviews and participant observation data. Major findings will highlight the growing problem of black lung in central Appalachia and related issues of culpability, i.e. who will pay as the Black Lung Benefits Trust Fund continues to decline? This presentation is intended to be one segment of the “The ‘Glocal’ Challenges of Coal Extraction and Black Lung Disease Among Miners” panel.
