May 7, 2025 - Last month, Harry Wiles, a Kanawha County coal miner, sued the Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

Wiles’ complaint said he’d been diagnosed with early stage black lung and had submitted paperwork and a CT scan to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

He applied to NIOSH for what’s called a Part 90 transfer, allowing him to continue to work in the mine but with less exposure to toxic dust.

The complaint said Wiley never received a response. But last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a motion to dismiss that NIOSH did review Wiles’ application and found he didn’t have black lung. He was therefore ineligible for the transfer, the federal government’s motion said.

Judge Irene Berger has scheduled a hearing in the case for Wednesday morning. 

Wiles’ lawsuit challenged staff cuts to NIOSH that put most of the agency’s employees on administrative leave after April 1, including the ones who survey coal miner health.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said last week that some NIOSH employees have returned to work, though only through the end of May. HHS made further staff reductions official late last week, with a termination date in July.

Participation in Part 90 has increased in recent years amid a surge in severe black lung cases and the diagnosis of the disease in younger miners.

With the NIOSH employees responsible for screening coal miners for black lung set to be terminated on June 1, it’s not clear how the program can continue.

Separately, the Mine Safety and Health Administration has put on hold a new limit on the amount of silica dust in coal mines until August.

A federal appeals court in St. Louis also agreed to block the rule, as sought by the National Sand, Gravel and Stone Association. The court denied a motion by the United Mine Workers of America and the American Thoracic Society – a group of lung doctors – to intervene in the case.

Berger is the same federal judge who sentenced former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship to a year in prison and a $250,000 fine for his role in the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster. 

Twenty-nine miners died in the April 2010 explosion in western Raleigh County.