The federal government is pushing back a deadline to implement a new silica rule in mines. According to the rule which went into effect last year, coal mines were supposed to be in compliance April 14, and that’s now scheduled to take effect in August.
A week before this announcement, MSHA held trainings across the country to explain how the new silica rule would work, attended by coal operators and miner advocates.
At one meeting in Wise, Virginia, John Robinson carried oxygen and held a handmade wooden cane. After working 28 years in the mines, he learned he had black lung disease.
“I just want men took care of. I don’t want them to be like me,” Robinson said.
Robinson and his wife advocate with the National Black Lung Association and were at the meeting to see if the federal government is prepared to enforce a new silica dust limit.
“Can we eliminate all the dust completely? No I don’t think there’s no way possible that you can eliminate all the dust,” Robinson said. “I think we can do improvements to help it.”
But at the meeting on April 2, some of their questions were unanswered. Chief among them, how will layoffs and cuts at the federal government affect enforcement of the new safety measures? Some employees who work on mine safety have received layoff notices from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents NIOSH workers.
In Appalachia, 1 in 5 miners get black lung disease, the highest level ever recorded, according to a NIOSH study published in 2018. Black Lung disease is caused by exposure to silica dust.
"We're up about 400% on the amount of [lung] transplants since 2016," said Dr. James Brandon Crum, a black lung doctor in eastern Kentucky. "That's a massive increase in the amount of transplants that we're seeing with black lung. And any type of defunding or any type of cut in the administrations or agencies that help protect these miners would have a significant negative effect on not only them, but their families and communities around them throughout the United States."
Crum attended the April 2 meeting in Wise and asked MSHA if they had information about the reported NIOSH layoffs.
“I don’t see that lasting. No, no way,” said one MSHA employee, Roy Baker, who went on to explain that MSHA relies on NIOSH to help with a number of safety requirements in mines, and if those workers are gone someone else would have to do the x-ray analysis of miners.
Another audience member, Willie Dodson with Appalachian Voices, asked about the dozens of MSHA offices that are slated to close, according to the Department of Government Efficiency.
The MSHA district manager Brian Dotson said he couldn’t comment. “I can’t speak to that now because it’s not been finalized if any offices are gonna be closed,” Dotson said.
A few days later on April 8, MSHA announced it’s temporarily pausing the new silica rule until August 18 citing “restructuring” at NIOSH.
A spokesperson with the Department of Health and Human Services says NIOSH programs will be moved into a new agency, called the Administration for a Healthy America. But the agency has not explained how this restructuring will work, or who will do the research. Democratic lawmakers from both the House and the Senate have introduced legislation in recent days asking for clarity and assurance that miner health will be protected.
