Charleston, Wash. - A judge on Tuesday ordered the resumption of health monitoring programs for coal miners in West Virginia and revoked federal governments that were laid off in departments of small U.S. health agencies.

U.S. District Judge Irene Berger issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which was diagnosed with respiratory disease by coal miners, often known as black lung disease.

Last month, nearly 200 workers at the National Occupational Safety and Health Agency were told that their work had been terminated as part of the restructuring in health and human services. Berger ordered work to resume within the Niosh respiratory health department in Morgantown, although her ruling did not specify numbers. The department is responsible for screening and reviewing physical examinations to determine whether there is evidence that miners have developed black lungs.

Federal law stipulates that coal miners can undergo regular health checks. Those diagnosed with black lungs also have the option to move to other locations in the mine to protect them from ongoing dust exposure without having to reduce their salary.

Berger said the defendant "lacks the power to unilaterally cancel" the coal workers' health monitoring program within NIOSH. She ordered the resumption of surveillance and work transfer programs, saying “no pauses, stops or gaps in protection and services”, as provided by the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act.

Toxic silica dust has caused premature deaths of thousands of miners in black lung disease. Plaintiff Harry Wiley, a West Virginia mine electrician who worked in the coal mine for 38 years, was diagnosed with early black lung in November last year.

Berger wrote that canceling the health monitoring program would "lose life." “In addition to accelerating his death, it also reduces the years that Mr. Willy can walk and breathe.

The judge gave Kennedy 20 days to show that the federal government complied with her orders.

On Tuesday night, emails seeking health and public service reviews were not immediately returned.

The preliminary ban "has to happen, and I think the public understands the absolute necessity of the program. It can't hinder it. It can't be eliminated. It's essential. It's essential. It's essential. Because it saves the lives of the people he's working hardest in the whole world."

NIOSH was made under the 1970 law signed by President Richard Nixon. It began operations the following year and began to have offices and laboratories in eight cities, including Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Morgantown and Spokane, Washington.