Jobs related to black lung screening have been restored at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, but questions remain about whether the federally required screening programs are operating properly.
In an ongoing court case, lawyers for the federal government certified this week that reduction in force notifications for the Respiratory Health Division at NIOSH have been rescinded.
However, the agency still faces challenges in fully supporting screening efforts — contracting for chest X-rays, promoting events, and ensuring consistent funding.
“The main thing that I took away from the certification yesterday was that they have not fully restored these programs,” attorney Sam Petsonk said on “Talk of the Town” on WAJR Radio.
“They say they’re trying. They 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 getting back on track is urgent.
“We are experiencing hundreds of layoffs across the mining industry right now,” he said. “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.”
Hundreds of workers at NIOSH, including the facility in Morgantown, were informed earlier this year that they would lose their jobs in line with the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiatives. NIOSH conducts research and makes recommendations about preventing work-related injuries and illnesses.
The Respiratory Health Division focuses on preventing work-related respiratory diseases and improving worker health. The Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program studies respiratory disease in miners and provides health screenings and information, particularly about black lung.
A Kanawha County coal miner named Harry Wiley filed federal suit on April 7 on behalf of himself and others potentially affected by the loss of the Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program. Wiley is represented by attorneys including Petsonk.
The lawsuit noted that the federal mine safety statutes since 1969 have afforded American coal miners a medical screening and epidemiological surveillance program, along with a unique right to transfer to a non-dusty job if they begin developing early signs of occupational lung disease.
U.S. District Judge Irene Berger last month granted a preliminary injunction to reverse the federally ordered job cuts endangering black lung screening.
The judge ordered that the secretary for Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., submit written certification to the court within 20 days of the order that compliance is complete.
That’s what the lawyers for the federal government submitted Monday, saying most employees who were with Respiratory Health prior to April 1, except those who made their own decisions to leave, have returned to work at NIOSH.
A written statement from John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said the program is again accepting submission of chest X-rays and spirometry tests and other material such as the most recent information that Wiley provided.
Howard’s statement said NIOSH is working through the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and HHS chain of command to fully restore the Respiratory Health operations including restoring and establishing contracts needed to carry out the agency’s mission.
For instance, that means maintaining contracts with physicians who classify chest x-rays, contracts to maintain x-ray image software needed to view and manage chest x-rays and contracts for x-ray technicians who participate in the black lung screening mobile unit and provide chest x-rays across multiple mining shifts during a mobile unit survey.
Howard wrote that more progress must be made to get communications up and running — for example, the necessity to communicate with miners, mine operators and media outlets to plan and promote black lung screening mobile unit surveys.
And he said the Respiratory Health Division still needs the ability to efficiently expend funds to carry out responsibilities under the federal Mine Act. In other words, the division needs to have funding to commit to and plan its outreach activities at various locations.
Petsonk, in an appearance on MetroNews Talkline, said the attorneys representing coal miners like Wiley will continue to pursue more information about the status of the kind of support that federal officials outlined.
“The program requires a lot of technical expertise, a lot of materials. There’s a whole internal supply chain to run a program like this — the X ray techs, the certifications, you’re dealing with radiation on a mobile van. You know, it’s a complex system,” Petsonk said.
“These programs require complex federal agencies, because they’re complex entities.”
There are still important milestones ahead in the court case. Judge Berger set a number of deadlines in the weeks ahead, including a scheduling conference for July 2.
Petsonk anticipated the U.S. district court will continue to examine whether the black lung screening programs are working as intended.
“You know, the court itself has to review this order. The court may take action. We may take action,” he said.
“The bottom line is, we’re all interested. I think the at least the court and the plaintiff here are interested in achieving the order that these services be available.”