How an Effort to Shield Coal Miners From Black Lung Fell Apart | FRONTLINE @NPR @pubhealthwatch

Watch a video drawn from "Coal's Human Cost," a Nov. 2026 investigative documentary from @frontline, @NPR, @pubhealthwatch & the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom.

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When Johnathan Wright began working underground in coal mines more than 25 years ago, the percentage of veteran working coal miners in Central Appalachia diagnosed with black lung disease was down to roughly one in 10.

Today, that reported rate is the highest it’s been since 1978: One in three — and Wright, age 44, has joined them.

“It’s awful,” says Wright, who was diagnosed with the incurable disease in 2023 after he started struggling to breathe when climbing the Kentucky hills, and began coughing up grey phlegm. “You work your whole life to enjoy the rest of it, and then you can't enjoy it.”

Wright is among the coal miners who share their stories in Coal’s Human Cost, a new documentary from FRONTLINE, NPR, Public Health Watch and the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom. Its Nov. 10, 2026, premiere comes as the Trump administration has been boosting coal mining, including through a pledge of nearly $700 million to keep coal-fired power plants running and coal exports flowing.

Against that backdrop, "Coal’s Human Cost" tracks the resurgence of black lung disease in Appalachia, the impact on miners and their families, and the role of the government and the mining industry in failing to protect them.

“It just still amazes me after all these years that these conditions have not been improved," Ron Carson, a retired director of black lung clinics, tells correspondent Howard Berkes in the above video drawn from the documentary.

Watch the full documentary "Coal's Human Cost" starting Nov. 10, 2026.

Learn more: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/coals-human-cost/

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