NIOSH head: Workers back at black lung program, efforts continue to restore services cut by DOGE

Yahoo

3 days ago

The NIOSH Coal Worker's Health Surveillance Program offered periodic black lung screenings at no cost to coal miners in the U.S. (NIOSH photo)
A certification was entered in federal court this week proving that at least 50 employees at the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety's Respiratory Health Division have had their terminations rescinded, meeting requirements set in a court order last month.
Those returning to work include 'most' employees who worked within the RHD before April 1, which is when reduction in force notices were issued throughout multiple NIOSH divisions as a result of the new federal Department of Government Efficiency's cost-saving measures.
Many of those workers were slated to be terminated on Monday, the same day NIOSH director John J. Howard signed and filed the certification in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
The certification was entered to meet requirements in a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Irene Berger last month. That injunction came from a class action lawsuit filed on April 7 against the federal government and led by Harry Wiley, a Raleigh County coal miner.
In May, Wiley's attorneys argued in a hearing that the closure of the CWHSP by DOGE meant responsibilities mandated by congress for coal worker health and safety were illegally going undone, robbing Wiley and other coal miners of their hard-fought rights. The federal government argued that the stoppage at the CWHSP and other NIOSH divisions was only temporary as the federal Department of Health and Human Services worked through a 'reorganization.'
Berger ruled in favor of Wiley and the other coal miners. She ordered that all RHD employees return to work and that the division — including the CWHSP — continue all work congressionally mandated by the federal Mine Safety and Health Act. If there are future moves to 'reorganize' the agency, Berger ordered that there must be 'no pause, stoppage, or gap in the protections and services mandated to be performed by the RHD.'
That work includes providing free black lung screenings and certifying black lung x-ray results for miners like Wiley who have been diagnosed with black lung disease so they can exercise their Part 90 rights. Part 90 allows miners who have black lung to be transferred to a different, less dusty part of a coal mine without facing repercussions from their employers. NIOSH is the only agency that can certify test results for miners to receive a Part 90 transfer.
In the certification declaration on Monday, Howard said that the agency is once again accepting test results necessary to certify Part 90 transfer requests.
But other work, according to the certification declaration, has yet to return completely.
Howard wrote that NIOSH was 'working through' the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the federal DHHS to 'fully restore' several of the RHD's functions.
Those functions include reestablishing contracts necessary for RHD to offer, review and manage chest x-rays through its mobile clinic; promoting events to alert miners of the free testing opportunities and ensuring funding can be accessed and spent for the agency to meet its requirements.
On Tuesday, according to WV MetroNews, Sam Petsonk — one of several attorneys representing the miners in the case — told 'Talk of the Town' on WAJR Radio that it's critical for all CWHSP services to return as soon as possible.
'They say they're trying. They say that they understand the court has ordered them to do this, but they have not restored the X-ray reading programs, the mobile unit that travels around the coal mines,' Petsonk said. '… We are experiencing hundreds of layoffs across the mining industry right now. This is just the moment where miners often look to see what kind of lung damage they have so that they can take stock before they find their next job. And we really need these programs right now, and we don't have them.'
The CDC estimates that about 20% of coal miners in Central Appalachia are suffering from black lung — the highest rate detected in more than 25 years. One in 20 of the region's coal miners are living with the most severe form of the condition.
And the resurgence of black lung is hitting coal miners at younger ages than ever before. This is due to miners, because of a lack of easily accessible coal, being forced to dig through more silica-rich sandstone than their predecessors in order to reach what little coal remains.
While the RHD employees are back to work, other fights are continuing against the federal government's cuts. Workers and those affected by the services they provide have been decrying the cuts for weeks now, saying they'll leave people in certain industries — including mining, firefighting and more — vulnerable to preventable accidents and illnesses.
Some of these fights, like that for the CWHSP, have already proven successful.
Last week, following continued pushback from black lung organizations and other mining advocates, the Trump administration reversed its plan to close 34 Mine Safety and Health Administration offices nationwide. Those offices employ mine inspectors whose jobs are to ensure that coal mine operators are meeting industry standards known to lower the risks of accidents and injuries for coal miners.
But other battles have proven more difficult.
In Pennsylvania, workers at the Pittsburgh-based Mining Research Division within NIOSH — which studies the best ways to prevent injuries, illnesses and death in coal mines — are still slated to be terminated.
Several of the services that are now going undone at NIOSH as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are congressionally mandated through the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
Multiple labor unions — including the United Mine Workers of America — filed suit on May 14 against DHHS and the federal government.
They're using similar arguments to Wiley's attorneys, which proved successful in getting services started back up: since the cuts are stopping work that is required by Congress, they say, they are illegal and should be reversed.