As President Donald Trump touted the revival of the U.S. manufacturing sector, support budgets for miners have reportedly been cut.
On the 20th, the Washington Post (WP) reported that while President Trump emphasized that he will continue to utilize 'beautiful and clean coal,' federal support systems ensuring miners' health and safety are being significantly reduced or abolished.
According to WP, the budget cuts implemented by the Trump administration are leading to the phased removal of the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program, which was operated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The program, introduced during President Nixon's administration in 1969, supports miners in receiving free chest X-ray examinations and early diagnoses of black lung disease.
In particular, this system has provided practical health screenings by sending mobile clinics to areas with limited medical access, such as mountainous regions; however, operations on-site were effectively halted after President Trump signed an executive order banning 'non-essential travel' in February.
NIOSH itself has also entered into a large-scale restructuring. According to the Associated Press, in April, the Trump administration reduced about two-thirds of NIOSH personnel, leading to the closure of major facilities including the Respiratory Diseases Research Institute in Spokane, Washington, and the Protective Equipment Laboratory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. These institutions have been responsible for core functions such as research on hazardous material exposure in mines, testing the effectiveness of protective equipment, and monitoring occupational diseases.
These measures are part of President Trump's 'MAHA (Make America Healthy Again)' policy, which aims to consolidate federal health agencies and reduce budgets. Earlier, the Trump administration had also laid off about 10,000 staff members from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the 1st.
However, labor groups criticize that such consolidations threaten the health and lives of on-site workers. Emory Carter, the national representative of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), who has worked in the mines for 37 years, expressed in an interview with WP, 'Due to black lung disease, even simple household chores are exhausting,' and raised concerns that 'if the screening system is abolished, the health of the next generation of miners will not be guaranteed.'
Sam Petson, an attorney from Oak Hill, West Virginia, where the coal industry is based, also filed a lawsuit on the 7th demanding the immediate reinstatement of NIOSH staff in response to the federal government's abolition of miner support programs.
Health experts warned that budget cuts could threaten the health of American workers and the sustainability of the mining industry in the medium to long term. Sunil Sharma, a physician at West Virginia University, criticized, 'If minimal social safety nets are not maintained, there will be a surge in miners undergoing lung transplants or dying at a young age.'