SOUL FULL OF COAL DUST

An investigative reporter takes on big coal in a tangled account of the battle for justice for miners stricken with lung disease.

In 2011, while working as a reporter for the Center for Public Integrity, Hamby often came into the orbit of “factory workers, men and women who’d lost loved ones in accidents, or survivors whose lives had been forever altered” by some malfeasance or another on the part of the bosses. Nowhere was this truer than in coal mining, where fires, cave-ins, and other occupational hazards were ever present but where the greater toll came in the form of lung disease. Countless lawsuits have been filed to obtain compensation for affected workers and, more often, their widows. However, as the author writes, “companies would rather spend stacks of cash fighting each case to the bitter end than pay the modest benefits to their former employees.” It was up to “a small but scrappy coalition” of crusading attorneys, labor organizers, health care professionals, and citizen advocates to piece together evidence proving a pattern of deception: Coal companies would convince willing politicians (Donald Trump among them) that environmental regulations were too burdensome, commission doctors to cast doubt on miners’ claims for compensation, and engage in other evasions. In the end, as the roster of victims of pulmonary illnesses grew as the decades passed, that coalition finally managed to push through legislation at the national level that, among other things, “would allow attorneys to collect partial fees as the claim progressed, rather than having to wait years for an uncertain payday at its conclusion,” and made provisions for retesting of miners whose claims had been denied due to suspect medical claims on the part of the coal companies. Hamby’s book is a touch long but full of memorable moments; it sits well in the tradition of advocacy journalism that includes recent books such as Carl Safina’s A Sea in Flames and Karen Piper’s Left in the Dust.

A solid contribution to the literature of resource extraction and its discontents.