Union Calls for Immediate Enforcement of Silica Dust Rule as Black Lung Cases Rise

Recent research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, conducted with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, shows black lung prevalence among central Appalachian miners has climbed to its highest level in almost five decades, with a third of miners with 25 or more years underground now diagnosed. The United Mine Workers of America, citing these findings, issued an urgent demand for the immediate, uncompromised enforcement of a silica-dust rule that the U.S. Department of Labor and Mine Health and Safety Administration finalized in 2024 but has been repeatedly delayed.

The union’s International President Brian Sanson warned that miners continue to inhale hazardous dust despite safety measures, and called for the legal stay on the rule to be lifted, for industry-proposed respirator or job-rotation alternatives to be rejected, and for stronger federal oversight with random dust sampling and strict penalties. The rule, which would set the first federal exposure limits for silica dust in coal mines and require free medical monitoring, has been stalled by a lawsuit from the National Sand, Stone and Gravel Association and subsequent indefinite postponement by regulators. Sanson emphasized that each day the rule remains inactive costs miners their health and lives, arguing that profit cannot outweigh worker safety.