I’m not a big creator of fafo content, but this one hits close to home as both my grandpas were coal miners who died from black lung associated lung diseases. (They were old and therefore lucky, some coal miners with black lung die far too young.) And the Trump NIOSH cuts will affect me and so many workers, disabled, and seniors.
ABC News – ‘I want to live’: Coal miners speak out as Trump strips away health protections After 100 days, Trump’s vow to boost coal belies cuts to miner health programs. By Dr. Mark Abdelmalek, Lauren Lantry, and Lucien Bruggeman April 29, 2025, 9:32 PM Black lung, the debilitating respiratory illness common in coal miners, has made a staggering resurgence in the past 25 years, particularly among the younger generation of miners as they cut through more rock to access deeper, hard-to-reach coal seams, exposing them to harmful dust particles called silica — which experts say is about 20 times more toxic to the lungs than pure coal dust. And even as President Donald Trump vows to reinvigorate America’s coal industry, critics say his administration has stripped away key protections for the miners. In his first 100 days in office, Trump’s administration has decimated the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, the federal institute that protects miners from black lung, and paused enforcement of a new safety rule that would lower the level of silica dust in the mines.
My letter to reps:
Because of the cuts at NIOSH the National Personal Protective Technology Lab in Pennsylvania will shut down and that can’t happen because this is the place that certifies all the N95 PPE for the whole country, for workers and the public for all types of respiratory protection including viruses, allergens, wildfire smoke, air pollutants. This is reversing decades of advancements in this area. It will set up an environment where counterfeit masks will proliferate worse than what happened during the shortages early in the pandemic, and will likely lead to countless dollars, including taxpayer dollars, spent in preventable adverse health effects, healthcare debacles, lawsuits, and criminal proceedings. You must do something to ensure that NIOSH is functional.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.