"a few passersby still stopped to peer at the 80 or so camo-clad demonstrators and read the signs they bore: "Silica Kills," Stand With Us! Enforce the Silica Rule!," "Coal Miners Lives Matter." The protest was an act of both proud determination and brutal desperation. A hard-won federal rule limiting miners' exposure to respirable crystalline silica was meant to go into effect on April 14, but the Trump administration has refused to enforce it."
"As I reported for In These Times, the rule would have cut the allowable exposure level of the deadly dust- 20 times more toxic than coal dust and a major cause of black lung disease among coal miners-in half. The Department of Labor had estimated in 2024 that, with proper implementation and enforcement, the rule would save thousands of lives."
A small group of retired coal miners protested outside the Department of Labor during the government shutdown to demand enforcement of a federal silica-exposure rule. The rule would have halved allowable exposure to respirable crystalline silica, a dust twenty times more toxic than coal dust and a major cause of black lung disease. The Mine Safety and Health Administration, now led by a former coal industry executive, allowed the Trump administration to delay enforcement. The Department of Labor estimated the rule would save thousands of lives with proper implementation. Union leaders and former acting Labor officials warned that the delay endangers miners and will cause deaths.
Read at The Nation
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