PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A new research letter published in a medical journal details hundreds of cases of black lung disease in the Central Appalachian coalfields.

Three clinics in southwestern Virginia identified 416 coal miners with the disease from January 2013 to February 2017, according to the study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Of those, 157 lived in eastern Kentucky, it said.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that the study provides further evidence that progressive massive fibrosis, commonly called black lung, has surged in recent years among co...