Weekly Watchdog

July 12, 2012

Black Lung is back due to coal industry cheating, regulatory failures

Throughout the coalfields of Appalachia, an alarming trend has become clear: Black lung is back. On the decline from the 1970s until the late 1990s, the deadly disease is reappearing in a more severe, faster-progressing form – increasingly among younger miners, according to a collaborative investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, NPR and The Charleston Gazette.

The disease, which leaves miners' lungs scarred, shriveled and black, was supposed to have been eradicated after a 1969 law limited dust levels in mines. But that hasn't happened.

The system for monitoring dust levels is tailor-made for cheating, and mining companies haven't been shy about doing so. Meanwhile, mine safety regulators often have neglected to enforce even these porous rules. Again and again, attempts at reform have failed.

Defense contractor admits helping China, but gets new contracts

The Canadian arm of the aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney closed a six-year U.S. government probe last week by admitting that the lure of up to $2 billion in helicopter sales to China had caused United Technologies Corp. to export computer software illegally that helped China create its first modern attack helicopter. The settlement cost Pratt & Whitney and two related companies a total of $75 million in fines, but nothing in the agreement directly threatens Pratt's existing or future government contracting. Despite helping China, the Pentagon has awarded more than $1.67 billion in new contracts to Pratt and its affiliates.

Wendell Potter: Be wary of insurers' propaganda

Among the most important provisions of the Affordable Care Act are those that try to get the United States back to something close to the good old days of "community rating" – in which insurers charge everyone in a given community the same premium regardless of age, gender or health status.

As you can imagine, insurance company executives and their lobbyists are working hard behind the scenes to get their friends in Congress to let them continue discriminating against people they really don't want as customers.

Their strategy is to get people to believe that young people will see their premiums skyrocket if Congress doesn't "fix" ObamaCare.

5 ways to stay connected to The Center for Public Integrity

As a reader of the Weekly Watchdog, we appreciate your support! Did you know there are (at least) five more ways you can connect with The Center for Public Integrity online? Each one offers a unique way to consume the news and interact with our reporters and other readers like you:

1. Like us on Facebook, where you can discuss our latest work.

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3. Check out our "whacky" side on tumbr - a very visual take on following the money this election year (good fodder for emailing your friends).

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Skin & Bones

Google Ideas is hosting a conference in Los Angeles next week to help us launch a new global investigation from The Center for Public Integrity's international arm, ICIJ - the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The July 17th event will showcase the work of an ICIJ team of investigative reporters working in 10 countries.

For the last eight months, the ICIJ team has examined a billion-dollar industry that trades in medical implants made from human tissue. We found that the business of recycling dead humans has grown so large over the past decade that you can buy stock in publicly traded companies that rely on corpses for their raw materials. But few know about the global scope of this industry.

Skin and bone donated by relatives of the dead are turned into everything from bladder slings to surgical screws to material used in dentistry or plastic surgery. Because this global trade is so lucrative, sometimes these body parts are obtained without the informed consent of relatives. And patients are not always told the products they are getting originated from a corpse.

The United States is the biggest supplier and user of this merchandise, but it is traded in at least 30 countries. Unlike blood or organs, however, there are inadequate records kept of where these raw materials come from and where the manufactured products end up.

Look for this new ICIJ/Center for Public Integrity investigative report next week.

Until next week,

Bill Buzenberg
Executive Director