In the United States, coal is back at the center of the political debate. President Donald Trump has never hidden his support for the mining industry, a symbol of identity and livelihood for entire communities in the Appalachian region. Yet, while promising a revival of the sector, a whole safety net for workers is collapsing amidst general indifference.
Behind the scenes of industrial pride, there is a little-known tragedy. Hundreds of employees from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the federal agency responsible for workplace health and safety, have been laid off in a massive “downsizing” that affected two-thirds of the staff. About 400 researchers specializing in mining safety, based in Pittsburgh, Morgantown, Spokane, and Denver, were let go.
Among them is Scott Laney, a professional with nearly twenty years of service at the agency. He was one of those who helped reveal an epidemic of progressive massive fibrosis among miners, an advanced form of pneumoconiosis, known as “black lung.” When the layoff announcement came, Laney said that both he and his colleagues were left stunned and frightened: their work was saving lives every day.
The cuts resulted in the closure of free screening programs in the mines, the end of medical training for early diagnosis, and the halting of federal databases that tracked the spread of respiratory diseases from fine dust. Respirator certification programs, vital tools that were certified by NIOSH during the Covid-19 pandemic, were also stopped.
Anita Wolfe, former public health analyst for the worker health surveillance service, issued a warning in an interview with Louisville Public Media, an independent non-profit organization. In her opinion, dismantling the plan will put an end to all essential activities to prevent and treat “black lung,” leaving miners without protection.
She further explained that, according to the layoff letters, employees were considered “no longer necessary” and the services provided were deemed “redundant.” Wolfe firmly rejected this reasoning, calling it unfounded and stressing that no other federal agency can perform this type of work.
In her statements, she called for swift intervention from the authorities, hoping they would realize the severity of the situation and reverse the cuts. However, her words reveal a deep bitterness: a sense of total abandonment, accompanied by the fear that no one is truly concerned about the fate of these miners.
Even the now-famous mobile clinic, which every year traveled to mining communities to offer personalized and free screenings to workers, has stopped. The tools for collecting evidence and epidemiological data have been wiped out.
In the name of a “restructuring” wanted by the Republican administration, voices have been silenced, and the means that, for years, protected those working in America’s most dangerous places have been extinguished. A fierce contradiction: the industry is being revived, but its workers are being sacrificed.
