The safety rules announced and finalized today are expected to save 10 times as many miners from catastrophic lung disease as the rules first proposed. These X-rays show black lung disease.
Elaine McMillion Sheldon for PBS Frontline
hide caption
caption conversion
Elaine McMillion Sheldon for PBS Frontline
The safety rules announced and finalized today are expected to save 10 times as many miners from catastrophic lung disease as the rules first proposed. These X-rays show black lung disease.
Elaine McMillion Sheldon for PBS Frontline
On Tuesday, federal officials announced new regulations to protect coal and other miners from toxic silica dust, a growing problem in mines that has sickened and killed thousands. .
It took mine safety regulators 50 years to do what federal researchers have long urged: set silica dust exposure limits at twice the level currently allowed and directly regulates exposure levels so that fines and penalties can be imposed when miners are overexposed.
The new rule also applies to miners the same silica exposure limits that apply to all other workers in the United States.
“No miner should have to sacrifice their health or their lungs to provide for their family,” said Chris Williamson, assistant secretary of Labor for mine safety and health.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration acted after joint investigative reporting by NPR, Ohio Valley ReSource, Public Health Watch, Mountain State Spotlight and Louisville Public Media revealed: a severe black lung disease epidemic, incurable and fatal once hidden; thousands of cases among increasingly younger miners; thousands of cases of continued overexposure to silica dust; and decades of failure to respond.
“It is unconscionable for our nation’s miners to work without adequate protection from silica dust even though it is known,” Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said in a prepared statement. has been a health hazard for decades.”
MSHA revealed key elements of the regulation on Monday night and published the full text of the final regulation in the Federal Register on Tuesday morning, just before the press conference.
New regulations require mining companies to monitor miners’ breathing while working and to adjust working conditions when there is excessive silica dust. Cases of overexposure must be reported to MSHA, a requirement not included in the rule first proposed last year but was inserted after coverage by news organizations and complaints from mine safety advocates.
The agency also issued a request for stronger action. Proposed regulations did not take into account the thousands of cases of severe or complicated black lung that occurred. Joint investigations by NPR, Public Health Watch and their partners have documented more than 4,000 cases since 2010 and hundreds of deaths. But the agency predicts the new rules will prevent only 244 cases of illness and 63 deaths over 60 years.
A strong case for stricter regulation is important given possible industry and congressional opposition.
Analysts estimate that the final rule, according to the investigative report, will prevent more than a thousand deaths and more than 3,700 cases of illness caused by silica once it is implemented.
“This is an important step to keep miners safe and healthy not just every day but throughout their lives,” said Cecil Roberts, international president of United Mine Workers of America. “Now, our focus turns to holding mining companies accountable.”
Not just miners
Mining companies are having time to adapt to regulatory changes. Coal mines have a year to prepare. All other mines, collectively known as metal/non-metal mines (MNM), have a two-year term. That’s because the regulation places unprecedented requirements on MNM mines, including a health monitoring program with free periodic exams to detect the early stages of silica-induced lung disease. . The results of those exams must be reported to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which has tracked the health of coal miners for decades.
MNM mines will also be required to take more dust samples. Both that and the medical surveillance program would require extensive and costly additions to the extraction process. That can cause challenges.
The new rule is a major change for MSHA, which identified a cluster of black lung disease caused by silica in 1996 and warned the mining industry about the risk of overexposure but did not set requirements. new bridge. Agency officials at the time blamed industry opposition.
“It’s a good rule of thumb,” said Vonda Robinson, vice president of the National Black Lung Association. But she said she is disappointed that most dust monitoring will be done by mining companies and not federal mine inspectors.
“Coal operators should not be doing the testing,” Robinson said in an interview. “I simply don’t trust them.”
Enough?
MSHA inspectors will monitor toxic dust in mine air during quarterly inspections. But that’s only four times a year.
“If the mines have to play a role in it, let them play a small role, but no,” said Debbie Johnson, a nurse at a black lung clinic in West Virginia whose husband is terminally ill. must be an important part”.
“That should be done by MSHA. So our government needs to…give MSHA some more money so they can get some people out there.”
MSHA’s resources were already strained, and Congress refused to increase the $50 million budget to inspect more mines and take more silica dust samples. Some Republicans in Congress have tried to ban MSHA from spending to implement silica dust regulations.
The National Mining Association welcomed an important element of the new regulation.
“We fully support the new, lower policy [silica dust] The limits are contained in this rule and are committed to working to improve the health and safety of our miners,” said Ashley Burke, a spokesperson for the union. Burke did not want to say more Monday night because the full text of the new regulations had not yet been released. .
Robinson witnessed her husband suffer from black lung disease. She said the stakes are high for miners in MSHA’s efforts to finally tackle the silica dust problem.
“Miners need to have a healthy life in coal mining,” she said. “And don’t let their families die young from black lung disease and silica.”
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Howard Berkes is a member of the board of directors of Public Health Watch. Berkes is a former NPR investigative reporter who collaborated with PBS Frontline on a landmark 2018 investigation that exposed the epidemic of advanced black lung disease and the failure of federal regulators to preventing it. Justin Hicks is a data reporter for Louisville Public Media. Mountain State Spotlight’s Allen Siegler contributed to this story.
