‘Do you have to be dead?’: US coalminers plead for benefits as black-lung disease cases surge

A coalmine in Wharton, West Virginia. The Trump administration is moving to boost the coal industry. Photograph: Ricky Carioti for The Washington Post via Getty Images

For 38 years, Josh Armes worked as a coal miner in West Virginia and Virginia.

After retirement, Armes, 74, of Grundy, Virginia, was diagnosed with black lung disease, medically known as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), caused by breathing in coal dust over long periods, which irreversibly damages the lungs.