State Leaders Support Boosting Black Lung Benefits, Congress Stalls

State leaders support boosting black lung benefits, Congress stalls

For Ohio County Judge-Executive David Johnston, passing a resolution last year urging an increase in black lung disability benefits was a matter of principle.

Local leaders support boosting black lung benefits. That consensus hasn’t emerged in Congress.

X-rays of a patient with black lung disease. (National Archives at College Park photo)For Ohio County Judge-Executive David Johnston, passing a resolution last year urging an increase in black lung disability benefits was a matter of principle.  The last major coal mine in Ohio County, a part of the Western Kentucky Coal Field region, closed years ago. But he said the former miners who have coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, known commonly as black l…