New silica-dust exposure limits aim to protect coal miners from black lung disease; data may not support that promise

The CDC encourages miners to get screened for black-lung
disease; the severest type is on the rise. (CDC graphic)

A proposed federal solution for preventing black-lung disease in coal miners may overlook thousands of deaths, and its regulation would not be enough to push mine operators to change tactics, report Howard Berkes of Public Health Watch and Justin Hicks of Louisville Public Media. "After decades of delay, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration is finally getting serious about overexposure to silica in the nation’s mines," they write. "The agency is proposing a silica-dust exposure limit twice as tough as it is now. MSHA would also directly regulate excessive silica exposures, something it hasn’t previously done, making citations and fines possible for putting miners at risk."

Black lung "has been a known threat to coal miners for over a century — it’s taken the lives of tens of thousands of Americans since 1968. While black lung became less common through the 1990s, it’s on the rise again. Now, even middle-aged miners have been diagnosed with advanced stages of the disease," reports Allen Siegler of Mountain State Spotlight. "Severe black lung continues to disproportionately affect central Appalachia; from 2019 to mid-2023, nearly 30% of Americans diagnosed with progressive massive fibrosis at federally-funded black lung clinics were West Virginians, according to the Black Lung Data and Resource Center at the University of Illinois. That trend is widely attributed to more frequent exposures to silica dust. . . . Grinding quartz creates silica dust, which is 20 times more toxic than coal dust alone."

How effective MSHA's proposed measures would be is uncertain. "An investigation by Public Health Watch, Louisville Public Media and Mountain State Spotlight shows that the plan’s purported benefits understate the silica risk to coal miners and the urgent need for immediate action," Berkes and Hicks report. 

Siegler reports, "Independent analyses of MSHA’s own coal-mine dust samples show its previous silica-dust exposure limits failed to adequately protect miners for decades. An investigation by NPR and PBS Frontline in 2018 analyzed MSHA’s data and found 21,000 instances of overexposure to silica dust since 1986. . . . While the proposed rule, in its current form, does require regular dust sampling, much of its effectiveness will depend on mining companies sampling their own mines and reporting it accurately and honestly."