September 7, 2025 - Pennsylvania officials are urging the Trump administration to keep a research laboratory in Pittsburgh open, warning that staffing cuts and a possible closure would jeopardize mine safety work that serves about 3,000 miners in the state.

In a letter sent this week to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Jessica Shirley asked federal leaders to maintain operations at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Pittsburgh lab, known as PRL.

Shirley wrote in the letter that doing so would allow the lab to continue research and training that help prevent injuries and fatalities. PRL’s future is uncertain after a recent reduction in force, and losing the facility would undercut rescue training, technical guidance and development of safety tools, the department said.

“Pennsylvania has a long legacy of mining — stretching back hundreds of years — and we owe it to our mine workers, their families, and mining communities to ensure their safety and continue this critical research,” Shirley wrote. “Since its inception in 1910 as the Bureau of Mines, the work accomplished by this group has undoubtedly saved lives and advanced the industry forward.”

“Losing this facility will impede advancements in mine safety, harm the mining industry, and put workers at risk,” Shirely added.

DEP’s Bureau of Mine Safety regularly collaborates with PRL on training, best practices and field tools, the agency said. 

That work includes guidance for mining near unconventional gas wells, standards for methane emissions control systems and a risk matrix for benching plans in limestone mines. The facility has hosted mine rescue sessions at its experimental mine and supports annual smoke expectation training for staff who use self-contained self-rescuers, officials said.

PRL scientists have pioneered research and technology to track respirable crystalline silica and coal dust, reduce unsafe noise levels and evaluate roof support systems, the department said. The Pittsburgh office also helped develop specialized drilling equipment and a detailed protocol after the 2002 Quecreek Mine rescue, when nine miners were freed after 77 hours underground.

Shirley told Kennedy and HHS that several multiagency work groups have benefited from PRL expertise, including committees on stone mine pillars and chain pillars in coal-gas settings. Work underway before the staffing cuts also examined lithium-ion battery use in underground mines, the letter said.

The lab’s virtual reality mine environment has become a key training tool, DEP said, noting the first annual VR mine rescue contest was held at PRL in 2024. Researchers were collaborating with the state to build a VR setting for training apprentice miners, mine official candidates and rescue teams.

“The Bureau believes the loss of the PRL facility and its subject matter experts would not be in the best interest of miners’ health and safety,” Shirley wrote.