On Tuesday, as coal miners crowded into the Oval Workplace to observe President Donald Trump signal an executive order meant to reinvigorate the coal business, the federal company answerable for defending those self same staff quietly introduced that it might delay the implementation of latest security requirements to guard them from lethal mud publicity.
The Mine Security and Well being Administration, or MSHA, mentioned Tuesday that it was pausing enforcement of a hazardous mud security rule many years within the making that was scheduled to take impact subsequent week, startling business and well being specialists who mentioned the delay might deny miners of key protections to their long-term well being.
“We simply had the rug pulled out from underneath us,” Chris Williamson, former Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Security and Well being and the previous head of MSHA throughout the Biden administration, instructed ABC Information. “And that’s very disappointing.”
Leaders at MSHA mentioned the brand new rule, which lowers the quantity of hazardous mud within the mines to a degree that well being specialists have been calling on for many years, could be delayed one other 4 months, prompting concern amongst some specialists that the administration is reconsidering the brand new security requirements altogether.
Mining firms have pushed back on the brand new security requirements.
Compounding the delayed security laws for miners’ well being is the gutting of the Nationwide Institute for Occupational Security and Well being, or NIOSH, a federal company answerable for the Coal Employees’ Well being Surveillance Program, which screens and displays the respiratory well being of miners.
MSHA mentioned in court docket paperwork filed as a part of ongoing litigation over the miner security requirements that it needed to delay enforcement of the brand new guidelines due partially to the surprising discount in workforce at NIOSH — a part of Trump’s broader slashing of the federal forms.
President Donald Trump speaks earlier than signing an government order to spice up coal mining and manufacturing in the USA, within the East Room of the White Home, April 8, 2025, in Washington.
Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Final week, in an e-mail to amenities that provide black lung screenings for miners, a NIOSH official instructed taking part amenities to halt submissions for black lung analysis as a result of staffing cuts on the company. The e-mail, a replica of which was obtained by ABC Information, concluded with, “We now have no additional details about the way forward for [the screening program] right now.”
Dr. Brandon Crum, a Pikeville, Kentucky, physician who was among the many first medical doctors to acknowledge a fast rise in issues from black lung in Central Appalachia, significantly amongst younger miners, mentioned he is involved in regards to the cumulative results of those developments.
“The pausing of the brand new silica rule together with the primarily shutting down of NIOSH and cutbacks in MSHA will put the miners’ well being again into the stone ages,” Crum warned.
The shock transfer to delay miner security measures comes towards the backdrop of Trump’s renewed push to return coal as a primary energy source in the USA. Within the government order signed Tuesday, Trump known as for coal manufacturing to develop into a nationwide precedence, aiming to perform this partially by “eradicating federal regulatory obstacles that undermine coal manufacturing.”
“We’re bringing again an business that was deserted,” Trump mentioned on the White Home, flanked by miners in onerous hats. “China’s opening two vegetation each week.”
However with out the brand new security measures, specialists worry a reinvigorated coal business locations undue threat on miners who’ve for generations suffered from debilitating respiratory circumstances, like black lung, also referred to as coal employee’s pneumoconiosis.
“There may be concern for important delays in implementation and probably by no means following by way of with the brand new rule in any respect,” mentioned Dr. Crum.
Black lung, a debilitating and sometimes deadly situation attributable to inhalation of coal and silica mud throughout mining, impacts roughly 1 in 5 miners who’ve labored within the Central Appalachian mines for twenty-five years or extra, based on NIOSH.
Inhaled silica mud particles journey down airways and into the smallest areas of the lung, inflicting scarring and finally issue respiration, typically changing into so extreme {that a} lung transplant could be the one answer to keep away from demise.
Difficult black lung is on the rise as a result of miners are being uncovered to extra silica mud than ever earlier than as miners are compelled to chop by way of extra rock to entry deep, hard-to-reach coal seams, work longer hours than earlier generations, and get much less time between shifts for his or her lungs to get well, based on specialists.
Crum, whose clinic has identified greater than 600 circumstances of black lung, mentioned, “The quantity and severity of black lung is worse now than ever.”
“We now have to have security,” John Robinson, a disabled 28-year mining veteran affected by essentially the most superior type of black lung, instructed ABC Information.
“We now have to have legal guidelines. We now have to have laws,” Robinson mentioned. “And with out that, I really feel like … we will have lots of people dying.”
