West Virginia coal miners lose black lung screenings after Trump slashes worker safety agency NIOSH
The budget for NIOSH was about $363 million in 2023, the same year that job injuries and illnesses cost Americans around $176 billion, according to the National Safety Council. Without NIOSH, officials say that number could be higher.
As Trump eyes coal revival, his job cuts hobble black lung protections for miners
Reuters interviews with more than a dozen people involved in medical programs serving the coal industry, and a review of internal documents from NIOSH, show that at least three such federal programs have stopped their work in recent weeks.
In coal country, Trump’s cuts to health programs put miners in danger
A federal program that screens coal miners for black lung disease has been shuttered because of layoffs and budget cuts.
Coal miners' health care hit hard in job cuts to CDC
Sam Petsonk grew up around southern West Virginia's mining communities, visiting patients with his father, one of the country's first doctors to specialize in Black Lung Disease.
The Young Miners Dying of “An Old Man’s Disease”
Black lung is completely preventable. And it’s on the rise again.