The death tally, though, does not include black-lung disease, which still kills hundreds of miners every year.

Health and mining officials say they also continue to be concerned about deaths from black-lung disease.

Though black-lung disease has crippled Mr. Lee at 57 years old, he is fighting that oblivion with remarkable energy.

After 24 years as a coal miner, Miller was diagnosed with pneumoconiosis, or "black-lung disease."

At age 64, he takes seven pills a day for arthritis, stomach trouble and black-lung disease, caused by years of breathing coal dust.

The vigor not sapped by the coal miner's black-lung disease and failing eyesight were nearly done in by a heart attack.

Many of the miners had debilitating black-lung disease from all the years of breathing the coal dust and were entitled to benefits from the federal government.

Jimmy's grandfather has such advanced black-lung disease that he needs to be whacked on the back periodically to keep him breathing.

That made him cough like a coal miner with black-lung disease, but he took another drag anyhow.

His mother died when he was a boy; his father died of black-lung disease.