'Cast aside to die': Voters struggle in deep-red Trump country

Coal miners supported President Donald Trump and thanked him at the White House in April for "trying to reinvigorate their struggling industry," writes The New York Times, but now those coal miners say that Trump is failing to protect them from an incurable illness that's killing them.

On Tuesday, dozens of coal miners will be outside the Labor Department protesting the Trump administration "arguing it has failed to protect them from black lung disease, an incurable illness caused by inhaling coal and silica dust," the NYT reports.

Those miners have been pushing for "federal limits on silica dust, a carcinogen that has led to a recent spike in the disease," the Times explains, "But mining industry groups have sued to block the rule, and the Trump administration has paused enforcement while the lawsuit plays out."

Democrats, assorted labor unions, "and a growing number of miners" have accused the Trump administration of ignoring workers while "using hundreds of millions of dollars in federal subsidies to bolster the companies that operate coal plants and mining operations," the Times says.

“The companies might be getting a handout, but the miners ain’t getting none,” said Gary Hairston, 71, a retired coal miner from West Virginia who is the president of the National Black Lung Association and has had black lung disease for nearly three decades.

Although Congress passed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act in 1969, which and required federal inspections and monitoring for black lung disease," the disease, says the NYT, has made a "disturbing resurgence," particularly among younger workers due to their exposure to silica dust.

Silica dust, the Times says, is considered about 20 times more toxic to the lungs than coal dust and can also cause lung cancer and kidney disease.

The Biden administration set limits on miners’ exposure to the silica dust, requiring mine operators to take immediate corrective action if exposures exceeded the limit. "The administration estimated the rule would prevent at least 1,067 deaths and 3,746 cases of black lung," the Times says.

Trump's delaying of the rule has put coal miners at great risk, the Times reports.

“The Trump administration was handed tools to protect black lung and they are doing everything in their power to toss those rules in the trash,” said Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations.

Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) said abandoning the silica standards “would be a real slap in the face for those who work so hard to power our communities.”

“The coal miners have supplied this country with electricity, and now they’re just cast aside to die," said Judith Riffe, whose husband Bernard died of black lung disease after working in West Virginia coal mines for over 40 years.