As director of the New River Health Association Black Lung Clinic, Emery’s seen guys as young as 45 getting double lung transplants as disease rates soar among miners forced to dig through more rock filled with deadly silica to reach the remaining coal — far worse than the dust their grandfathers inhaled. A rule approved last year by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration would cut the federal limit for allowable respirable crystalline silica dust exposure by half to help protect miners of all types nationwide from the current driving force of black lung and other illnesses.

But, now, it’s in jeopardy amid other Trump administration cutbacks and proposals targeting workers’ health and safety guardrails: Stuck in a politically charged environment that promotes industry, with lawmakers arguing to change it and the federal agency that wrote the rule not pushing to enforce it. Some angry retired miners with black lung are fighting back, demanding that President Donald Trump honor promises he made to the people who voted him in.

  • protist@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    edit-2
    10 hours ago

    Coal miners throwing their full-throated support behind the politicians that the coal industry executives want them to will always be mind boggling to me given their proud history of unionization. But I guess now they just hate trans people and abortion more than they like good wages and workplace safety

    • TallonMetroid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      9 hours ago

      Rural Americans have spent the last 50 years getting bombarded by pedo-con media, and GOP gutted education to make sure they don’t have the tools to see past the lies.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      8 hours ago

      more than they like good wages and workplace safety

      Not like they were being promised good wages and workplace safety by either major party. Voting for Republicans is definitely making matters worse, but at least Republicans offer them something (which of course is all lies, but that’s beside the point).

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    8 hours ago

    I don’t think most of you understand how desperate West Virginia is. They’re not retarded, the state government has been trying to figure ways out of their coal dependence. tl;dr: They are fucked.

    Anyway, not a soul will watch this man’s journalism, but he’s the finest I know.

    https://www.youtube.com/@PeterSantenello

    Might change your views on a few things. But that’s scary!

    • Formfiller@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      5 hours ago

      Voting for a billionaire conman 3 times doesn’t really help your argument that these people aren’t mentally challenged

  • rxbudian@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    edit-2
    9 hours ago

    a brutal way of looking at this is that the more of them that dies, the less people who will be voting for the party they voted for.
    If the party wants to win the election, they should care about the people they voted for

  • MisterOwl@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 hours ago

    Even the world’s smallest violin doesn’t give a fuck.

    Have the day you voted for, idiots.