May 16 Energy & Environment Lung Transplants Rise Amid Region’s Black Lung Epidemic The Appalachian coalfields are in the midst of an epidemic of severe black lung disease. The debilitating and even deadly disease has recently begun to affect miners as young as 30. Dust from coal mines has scarred these miners’ lungs, so little of the air they breathe gets absorbed. In central Appalachia, researchers say, one […] By Benny Becker May 16 Energy & Environment Lung Transplants Rise Amid Region’s Black Lung Epidemic Benny Becker