Miners and advocates rallied Wednesday at the West Virginia Capitol in support of a series of bills aimed at preventing and treating severe black lung disease. Five bills introduced by lawmakers would make it easier to make qualify for state benefits and provide benefits to miners who have early-stage black […]
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Secret portions of a lawsuit allege that Purdue Pharma, controlled by the Sackler family, considered capitalizing on the addiction treatment boom — while going to extreme lengths to boost sales of its controversial opioid. Not content with billions of dollars in profits from the potent painkiller OxyContin, its maker explored […]
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In the wake of an NPR and PBS Frontline investigation into the surge in cases of black lung disease, a coalition of black lung clinics is calling for action to better protect coal miners from dust exposure. NPR reports that more than 2,300 miners in central Appalachia are sick with the most serious form […]
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In West Virginia, it is 1.7 times more likely for a black infant to die before their first birthday, compared to a white infant. This is one of the figures that came from Dr. Lauri Andress’ research on infant mortality. At first, Andress, an assistant professor in the West Virginia […]
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This article was originally published by Rewire.News. Opioids and a rise in people experiencing homelessness have been blamed for a hepatitis A epidemic in West Virginia. But advocates for the homeless say the local census doesn’t support that. West Virginia has been struggling with an outbreak of hepatitis A, according […]
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A new interactive map shows the county-by-county impact of opioid drug overdoses. A researcher describes some of the challenges of reporting overdoses in rural areas and what researchers did to address them. If you’ve got a couple minutes, Michael Meit has a favor to ask. He’ll try not to take up […]
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