Weeks after a federal judge ordered a black lung screening program to resume, the head of the agency that runs the program says it has complied.
John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, told U.S. District Judge Irene Berger that 51 workers who had received termination notices in April were back on the job.
Those workers are part of the Respiratory Health Division at the NIOSH office in Morgantown.
They carry out the Coal Worker Health Surveillance Program, which screens coal miners for black lung disease and helps them apply for job transfers to protect their health.
A Kanawha County coal miner, Harry Wiley, sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to reinstate the black lung program.
Last month, Berger ruled in Wiley’s favor and ordered HHS to respond within 20 days that it was following her order.
In a statement filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, Howard wrote that NIOSH was fully restoring the program.
While HHS reinstated some functions of NIOSH in Morgantown and Pittsburgh, including the Coal Worker Health Surveillance Program, other parts of the agency remain in limbo.
The Pittsburgh-based Mining Research Division has about 100 workers who are still subject to a Reduction in Force. The division investigates mine disasters and develops techniques to prevent mine fires, explosions and cave-ins. It also works to make such events survivable.
A separate lawsuit filed in federal court in the District of Columbia seeks to restore all NIOSH departments. The United Mine Workers of America is one of the plaintiffs.