CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The head of the national coal miners union on Friday condemned what he characterized as an effort by House Republicans to block enforcement of a long-awaited federal rule aimed at limiting workers’ exposure to toxic and deadly rock dust, calling it “a direct attack on the health and safety of miners.”
Cecil E. Roberts, president of United Mine Workers of America International, said a budget provision — approved Thursday by a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee — that would prohibit the Department of Labor from using funds to enforce a silica dust rule that operators next year is “morally reprehensible” and that the action “undermines the principles of fairness and justice that our country stands for.”
“It is difficult for me to understand how certain members of Congress could possibly support allowing more miners to die asphyxiated as a result of being forced to breathe this dust,” Roberts said in a statement.
Silicosis, often called black lung, is an occupational pneumoconiosis caused by inhaling crystalline silica dust present in minerals such as sandstone. The US Mine Safety and Health Administration rule, finalized in April by acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, halves the allowable exposure limit for crystalline silica for an eight-hour shift.
The regulation is in line with exposure levels that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration mandates for construction and other non-mining industries. And it’s the standard that the Centers for Disease Control recommended way back in 1974. The U.S. Department of Labor began studying silica and its impact on worker health in the 1930s, but the focus on stopping workplace exposures largely bypassed coal miners.
Su said in April that it was “unconscionable” that American miners had to work for so long without the protections: “We make it clear that no job should be a death sentence.”
The black lung problem has only gotten worse in recent years as miners cut through more and more rock layers to get to less accessible coal, releasing deadly silica dust. Silica dust is 20 times more toxic than coal dust and can cause severe black lung disease even after a few years of exposure.
With increased drilling, even younger miners in Appalachia, some in their 30s and 40s, are being diagnosed with severe forms of the disease. An estimated one in five permanent miners in Central Appalachia has black lung disease; one in twenty has the most debilitating form of black lung.
The House subcommittee on Thursday did not debate the bill containing the silica dust enforcement block before it was introduced. A spokesman for the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education subcommittee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, a Republican who represents Alabama, did not return an email request for comment Friday. Nor did the National Mining Association, which represents operators.
Mine safety advocates are rushing to meet with lawmakers before the bill goes before the full House Appropriations Committee on July 10. It must be approved by that committee before going to the full chamber.
Quenton King, federal legislative specialist for Appalachian Voices, a nonprofit that advocated for the silica dust rule, said the protections are essential to protect not only miners in central Appalachia, but also metal and non-metal miners across the country. If enforced, it will help save thousands of lives, he said.
“If we knowingly prevent MSHA from doing that, it would literally be killing miners,” he said.
West Virginia attorney Sam Petsonk, who has represented miners diagnosed with black lung after companies committed safety violations, said he sees workers every day with less than a decade of mining experience diagnosed with end-stage, fatal silicosis.
“This is a policy decision by the entire Republican Party leadership to throw the American coal miners to the dogs,” he said. “It’s insulting and really unfair to our communities that they’re doing this to us. And it’s certainly inconsistent with the idea that Republicans are trying to help coal miners and coal mining communities.”
