At the start of their shift, the coal miners working on Enlow Fork Mine’s H-3 longwall section step into a black steel elevator and descend 800 feet underground, where they walk out through a heavy airlock door and into a part of the earth that few people ever see. It’s a two-minute ...

Kevin Weikle, a 34-year-old coal miner in West Virginia, began working in the mines at 18. Last year, his career came to an end. That’s because the father of four was diagnosed with an advanced stage of black lung disease and has reduced lung capacity from breathing in harmful dust at work. ...

“No job should be a death sentence.” Those were the words of Acting U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Julie Su, who was in Uniontown Tuesday to announce the finalization of the new federal Silica Dust Exposure Rule, meant to protect miners from health hazards associated with exposure to ...