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For years, many coal miners suffered from pneumoconiosis, more commonly referred to as black lung disease or just black lung, caused by long exposure to coal dust.

Over the years, the dust builds up in the lungs of miners, causing all sorts of breathing problems.

After the United Mine Workers sought relief from the disease, Congress passed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act in 1969, setting up standards to reduce dust in coal mines and creating a Black Lung Disability Trust to help disabled workers and their widows.

It was heralded at the time as a major victory for coal miners and their families. However, that’s not necessarily been the case over the years as a heavy backlog of cases has forced miners to wait for care and payments.

In some cases, miners have died from the disease before receiving proper treatment and compensation.

Take the case of David Wilson of Greensboro, who worked at several mines in Greene County before retiring in 2011. Four months after retiring, Wilson discovered that he needed a lung transplant.

Wilson said he is receiving partial benefits since November, but a hearing in front of a Department of Labor administrative law judge to determine whether he will receive full benefits or be forced to repay the money he has received has not been scheduled.

“I’m getting a little. I haven’t gotten the full amount. It’s just partial,” Wilson said. “If the judge rules in favor of the mine, I would have to pay it all back.”

Wilson’s plight and that of other former and current miners has drawn the attention of U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who is calling for $10 million to be added to the $28.6 million that President Barack Obama included in the 2015 budget to hire additional administrative law judges to address the growing backlog of black lung cases.

Obama’s proposed allocation is $2.9 million more than what is contained in this year’s budget, but it’s not enough to counteract the 20 percent decline in the number of administrative law judges and the 60 percent increase in the number of black lung cases, Casey said.

Casey recently chaired a hearing to explore the challenges that former coal miners have with this backlogged and broken system.

“It is shameful that black lung benefits claimants have to wait years for their cases to be decided, but even worse is making them wait years and basing those decisions on questionable evidence,” said Casey.

Casey’s hearing came on top of a groundbreaking investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and ABC News, which raised serious questions about the way the government processes these claims and the work that companies are doing to have these claims denied.

Their investigation centered around the Dr. Paul Wheeler, a radiologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine, who reportedly discovered no signs of black lung disease in the over 1,500 cases he reviewed since 2000.

Miners reportedly lost over 800 cases based on his X-ray readings, even though other doctors have reportedly found black lung in the same X-rays and biopsies or autopsies repeatedly have proven Wheeler wrong.

Johns Hopkins Medicine suspended its black lung diagnosis program after the investigation and the Department of Labor said it would no longer use Wheeler’s services in evaluating miners.

Casey said it’s important for the Department of Labor to make sure such abuses are no longer tolerated going forward but also be certain that any miner affected by Wheeler’s decisions has his case properly re-evaluated.

It’s also important, Casey noted, that the claims of miners be reviewed in a timely basis as justice delayed is often justice denied.

We couldn’t agree more, and we salute Casey for taking up such an important cause.

It’s certainly the least our nation can do for miners who have worked long and hard to help supply the energy needs of their fellow citizens.

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