Pioneer in black lung fight
Editor’s note: This is the second part in a two-part series on the black lung program and events planned to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the 1978 amendments to law that created the federal black lung district offices in Charleston and Parkersburg.
In 1962, a young doctor from Manassa, Colo., saw a help wanted advertisement in a medical journal needing doctors in Beckley at the then-Miners Memorial Hospital.
“I was looking for a place to set up practice after getting out of the Army,” Dr. Donald Rasmussen recalled. “I had never been to West Virginia and was a little skeptical about the move.”
Rasmussen says when he arrived in Beckley he was impressed with what he saw.
“The scenic beauty of the area, the wonderful people who lived here and the staff and work going on at the miners hospital were simply amazing,” he said.
Rasmussen began working with coal miners, which would become his life’s mission.
“Before I came here, I really had no exposure or knowledge about coal miners’ lung disease, known today as black lung,” he said.
Rasmussen says he began to see many miners who experienced shortness of breath and other trouble with their lungs and breathing.
“I was asked to evaluate some of the miners,” he said.
Rasmussen’s evaluation included breathing and exercise tests to determine any respiratory problems.
“We also got samples of blood to see what the oxygen tension was and I began to see abnormalities in these patients,” he said.
Rasmussen said he began writing reports for some miners for Social Security disability and others who were filing workers’ compensation claims as a result of respiratory problems.
“I served as an expert witness before state and federal judges,” he recalled. “These cases usually involved the awarding of benefits to a miner, his widow or his dependents.”
For coal miners and their families, Rasmussen became known as the “doctor with a heart.”
“I wasn’t trying to take one side over another,” he said. “But I saw a lot of injustice being done to coal miners and their families.”
Rasmussen says he doesn’t hide the fact he is a “friend of coal” because of the good-paying jobs, but he is also a “friend of the coal miner” as well.
He and a handful of dedicated doctors and professionals knew they had a uphill battle against coal operators, many of them corporate giants.
“I even took a pay cut and joined a public health service for a couple of years so I could do more studies on the lung disease miners were getting from being exposed to coal dust,” he said.
Rasmussen would meet with coal officials, coal operators, miners, lawmakers and even went to Washington in 1968 to testify before a congressional subcommittee.
“I was invited, along with three miners, to testify,” he said. “I suppose that was the first time I did any advocacy work, trying to explain to congressmen the problems miners were having.”
In the early years of fighting for recognition of black lung as a disabling disease, Rasmussen said the less X-ray abnormality then the miner was thought to be healthy.
“Even miners with no abnormality in X-rays still had blood gas impairment, but it took a long time to convince everyone,” he said.
The coal companies hired doctors to dispute Rasmussen’s research and findings.
“I wasn’t trying to make anyone mad,” he said. “I was just doing my duty as a doctor, which is to take care of my patients in whatever capacity needed.”
Rasmussen continues to fight for the rights of victims of black lung and prevent further victimization of miners. Through his extensive research, he has helped changed the way the American medical profession and the coal industry view this disease.
“I never felt I was leading a charge,” he said. “I don’t see myself as an advocate. I saw the coal miners who needed help and I just told of my own experiences, from what I learned working with them and treating them. It was all in the scope of my job. I was just a physician performing my duty.”
Unfortunately, black lung is on the rise in southern West Virginia, according to a recent report.
Dr. Lee Petsonk, chief medical officer for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, told the House Select Committee on Mine Safety last year that miners tested in Raleigh and Mercer counties showed an incidence of pneumoconiosis that was twice the national average.
“I don’t know how some of these people are still working,” he said.
Research in eastern Kentucky and western Virginia revealed almost identical results, Petsonk said.
Back in 1970, about 36 percent of the industry’s workforce was diagnosed with black lung, but the number dropped to 7 percent in 1995. Now it has shot back up to 13 percent, he said, grabbing the attention of the experts at NIOSH.
