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the surviving dependents of miners whose death was due to such <br />disease. .") A living minor is `considered totally disabled <br />when pneumoconiosis prevents him or her from engaging in gainful <br />employment requiring the skills and abilitiss oomparabl• to those <br />of any employment in a mine or mines in which her or she <br />previously engaged with some rsqularity over a substantial period <br />of time." 30 U.S.C. ; 902(!)(1)(A); 20 C.F.R. ; 410.412. Total <br />disability under the Hlack Lung Senefitc Act, therefore, is <br />contingent on a finding of an illness, namely pneumoconiosis. In <br />fact, under the terms of the Hlack Lung Benefits Act and the <br />regulations that have be adopted by the DOL to administer the <br />Act, miners considered "totally disabled" may be employed. In <br />particular, section 902(f)(1)(H) states: <br />(i) a deceased miner's employment in a mine at the time <br />of death shall not be used ac conclusive evidence that <br />the miner was not totally disabled; and (ii) in the <br />case of a living miner, if there are changed <br />circumstances of employment indicative of reduced <br />ability to perform his or her usual coal sine work, <br />such miner's employment in a mine shall not be used as <br />conclusive evidence that the miner is not totally <br />disabled(.) <br />30 U.S.C. ; 902(f)(1)(H)(i) and (ii); D9.H ~Q Farmer v. Rovers, <br />839 F.2d 269 (6th Cir. 1988)(widov eligible to secovar Black Lung <br />Benefits despite fact that miner was still smplaysd at time o! <br />death). Thus, being "totally disabled" and, thersfors, eligible <br />for Black Lung Benefits under the Slack Lung Banalits Act, does <br />31 <br />