Breathless and Burdened
This yearlong investigation examines how doctors and lawyers, working at the behest of the coal industry, have helped defeat the benefits claims of miners sick and dying of black lung, even as disease rates are on the rise and an increasing number of miners are turning to a system that was supposed to help alleviate their suffering. Winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.
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Breathless and Burdened
Part 1 of 3
Published — October 29, 2013 Updated — August 6, 2014 at 5:53 pm ET
Coal industry’s go-to law firm withheld evidence of black lung, at expense of sick miners
Part 1 of a 3-part series, ‘Breathless and Burdened: Dying from black lung, buried by law and medicine’
Breathless and Burdened
Part 2 of 3
Published — October 30, 2013 Updated — January 13, 2015 at 4:43 pm ET
Johns Hopkins medical unit rarely finds black lung, helping coal industry defeat miners’ claims
Part 2 of a 3-part series, ‘Breathless and Burdened: Dying from black lung, buried by law and medicine’
Breathless and Burdened
Part 3 of 3
Published — November 1, 2013 Updated — May 19, 2014 at 12:19 pm ET
As experts recognize new form of black lung, coal industry follows familiar pattern of denial
Part 3 of a 3-part series, ‘Breathless and Burdened: Dying from black lung, buried by law and medicine’
