With cases of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (black lung disease) and progressive massive fibrosis (PMF) spiking, two unions have called on the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to step up standards to protect miners from silica dust.
The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and United Steelworkers (USW) said in a statement on Wednesday that silica was believed to be responsible for a large rise in cases of black lung disease among coal miners in central Appalachia.
In a letter addressed to the assistant secretary of the MSHA, David Zatezalo, UMWA and USW leaders say that one in five miners with 25 years or more experience were believed to suffer from black lung. In many cases, the disease had advanced to the worse-stage PMF.
The unions said that, in the past, the primary cause of black lung was thought to be coal dust, but as coal seams became deeper and thinner, miners were cutting through more waste rock, much of which was high in silica, which were considered more dangerous to lungs than coal dust.
Silica causes lung cancer and silicosis.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration set a new silica standard in 2016, cutting the permissible exposure limit in half, but the unions said that MSHA had yet to follow suit.
"Black lung afflicts thousands of coal miners," UMWA president Cecil Roberts said. “We know what causes it, we know how to prevent it, yet miners are still getting it. MSHA took action in 2016 to reduce respirable coal dust. Now it must act to reduce silica exposure, and quickly."
"All miners need this standard, surface and underground, no matter what they're mining,” added USW president Leo W. Gerard. "This administration says they love miners. Let's see if they mean it."