Congress Boosts 'Black Lung' Treatment Funding By Millions
After NPR reporting on the Progressive Massive Fibrosis epidemic, Congress and the White House agreed to give the maximum funding authorized for clinics treating the disease in 15 coal-mining states.
Rural medical clinics that are struggling to respond to an epidemic of a fatal lung disease plaguing coal miners received a 40 percent boost in federal funding with the passage of the omnibus spending bill last week.
As in 2016, hundreds of coal miners have been diagnosed with Progressive Massive Fibrosis in the last five years. This advanced stage of the disease known as "black lung" is incurable and often leads to gruesome deaths in which miners
