The Mine Safety and Health Administration released a proposal on Tuesday, outlining how it would change silica dust protections for miners in industries ranging from coal to gravel quarries.
Health researchers have pointed to silica dust exposure as the leading cause for increasing rates of black lung disease in central Appalachian coal mines.
The proposal would remove quarterly testing requirements for silica dust and instead allow mines to test “as frequently” as they deem is “necessary.” The proposal argues that mine operators have the experience necessary to decide how often to test for toxic dust.
“MSHA anticipates that under this proposal, mine operators might determine that some miners are not reasonably likely to be exposed to respirable crystalline silica…and would therefore not conduct sampling for those miners,” the proposed rule states.
The new rule could also mean mine companies only have to test work environments the mine company believes would be at or above a warning level of silica dust. There is no safe level of silica dust exposure and currently, mines are required to test areas in which workers could be exposed to any silica dust.
MSHA estimates that reduced exposure monitoring and medical testing around silica dust would save mine operators a collective $28.7 million a year. More than 90% of those cost savings would be realized in industries other than coal.
The proposal would not change the toxic dust legal limit, which was set at 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air in 2024, but it would change how companies can be fined if they exceed it.
In the Biden-era rule, companies could be fined if their own dust sampling shows silica dust levels above that legal limit. The proposed rule change this week would only fine companies based on results from MSHA inspections.
Even then, the agency would only fine if a test is 21% over the limit, in order to account for errors. That means companies could overexpose workers with silica dust levels up to 60 micrograms without any penalty.
The new rule seeks to remove required medical exams for miners who work outside the coal industry when they first start mining. Initial exams are frequently referenced when miners who develop black lung disease need to prove they got it from work in order to qualify for federal health benefits.
A statement from the U.S. Department of Labor – MSHA’s parent agency – characterized the changes as “practical, commonsense, risk-based improvements” that would “better protect the nation’s miners.”
But miner advocacy groups who fought decades for tougher silica dust standards strongly disagree.
“Amid a black lung epidemic that is the worst it has been in 50 years, the Trump administration proposed a silica dust rule weaker than what miners and miner advocates won in 2024,” Brendan Muckian-Bates with the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center said in a press release Tuesday. “The administration said they wanted to bring back coal. Instead, under their watch, they are bringing back black lung.”
Vonda Robinson, President of the National Black Lung Association was angry when she heard some of the proposed changes.
“This is just absolutely ridiculous,” Robinson said in an interview with the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom. “It just upsets me because this is just an earlier death sentence for metal, non-metal and [coal] miners. We’re going to fight them tooth and nail. This is not going to happen.”
Mining industry groups are also reviewing the technical rulemaking document. The National Mining Association says it supports stricter silica dust limits and has an optimistic view of the proposed changes.
“In our initial reading of this proposed rule, it appears to address many of the concerns that we have raised and recommendations we have made to the government for years,” Ashley Burke, a spokesperson for the National Mining Association wrote in an email.
The current rule was finalized during the Biden administration after decades of pleading from federal health researchers and then advocacy groups for coal miners. It not only lowered legal exposure limits for coal workers – it also impacted mines like sand and gravel quarries and required baseline medical testing for new miners to help establish whether those workers were also being harmed from silica dust inhalation.
But before those stricter standards could even be enforced, mining industry associations sued. They represented industries like kitty litter and gravel quarries and said the new requirements would be costly and cause “irreparable harm” to their businesses.
Between a federal judge’s injunction and a voluntary pause of enforcement, stricter silica dust protections never fully took effect. In court documents, MSHA told the court that their proposed rule may resolve some of the issues brought up by the lawsuit.
For example, the proposed legislation exempts sorptive mineral mines like kitty litter and oil absorbents from silica dust requirements altogether.
The public can comment online up to 60 days once the rule is published or attend a virtual hearing on Dec. 15 to give MSHA feedback on the proposed rule.
This story was produced by the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, LPM, WEKU, WKMS and WKU Public Radio in Kentucky, and NPR. Sign up for the weekly Porch light newsletter here for news from around the region.
