Silica Dust Rule Delayed Again, Advocates Say Miners’ Lives at Risk

‘They don’t care:’ Advocates for miners with black lung worry as silica dust rule delayed again

by Caity Coyne, West Virginia Watch
August 14, 2025

A federal rule to limit coal miners’ exposure to dangerous silica dust — which was set to go into effect next week after already being delayed for months — is expected to be further postponed following a joint status update filed in federal court this week.

Now, the rule’s implementation will be pushed until at least October, according to the court filing.

Silica dust exposure is a significant driver of black lung disease among coal miners. 

The silica dust rule was initially finalized last spring and was meant to go into effect for coal mines in April 2025. But that didn’t happen. 

That month, several industry groups filed a request with the federal 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the rule’s implementation, citing the high costs for mine operators to comply and challenges posed by turnover within the Trump administration. 

A federal judge granted an emergency stay to postpone the rule until August.

According to the joint status report filed this week, the parties in the case — led by the National Sand, Stone and Gravel Association against the federal Department of Labor and the Mine Safety and Health Administration — “are still discussing potential settlement of the petitions, and those discussions are ongoing.” 

The implementation will be suspended until at least Oct. 17, with another status update scheduled on Oct. 10. MSHA, according to its website, has yet to publicly alert stakeholders of this second postponement. Representatives for MSHA could not be reached for comment.

The finalized rule would be the first of its kind for silica dust in mines, despite evidence existing for decades showing the dangers of exposure and other industries already enforcing exposure limits due to these risks. 

It would cut silica dust exposure limits in half for miners and implement new action levels when a certain amount of silica dust is present in mines. It would also require mine operators and companies to offer free medical monitoring for their workers with the hope of detecting black lung and other respiratory diseases earlier.

‘The wind is out of my sails:’ Advocates frustrated, discouraged over pushback on rule

The further delay of the rule is a serious concern for advocates and others who work with people diagnosed with black lung. 

Lisa Emery, director of the New River Health Breathing Center and Black Lung Clinic, has worked on black lung as a registered respiratory therapist in Southern West Virginia for nearly 10 years. This summer, Emery was selected to serve as the chair for the National Coalition of Black Lung and Respiratory Disease Clinics.

When the silica dust rule was first finalized last year, Emery said it felt like “finishing a marathon.” So much work and time had gone into developing the rule — from miners, from care providers, from researchers and more over several years. Seeing it finalized and actually about to go into effect was a relief, Emery said.

“We were crossing that finish line. We had so much hope and this was one of the biggest steps toward improving coal miners’ health that we could have hoped for,” Emery said. “It needed to happen and it did. We were just so excited for it.”

But now, as the government continues to delay implementation and the courts consider reviewing the rule, Emery said it’s hard not to feel discouraged.

“Now, I feel like the wind is out of my sails,” Emery said. “We were crossing a finish line, we were about to win the race, right? And in that last stretch, the wind is just totally out of our sails. It’s hard not to be upset about that.”

Gary Hairston, president of the National Black Lung Association, said the disappointments from elected officials and the government generally are becoming more difficult to bear. 

A miner for 30 years, Hairston was diagnosed with black lung in his late 40s. 

He kept working underground even after the spot on his lung was found by doctors. One day, running up the stairs to avoid rain at his mine, he ran out of breath so severely he thought he was going to die. Soon after, he fell ill with pneumonia.

“For almost a year, I was in and out of the hospital every week, back and forth,” Hairston said. “When I got better, everything had changed. I tried to go back to work, but the [doctor] told me I wouldn’t get better — I’d need oxygen all the time, it was going to only get worse.”

There is no cure for black lung disease. The best way to prevent it from developing into a more complicated form is to limit exposure to silica dust.

Hairston has now been retired from coal mines for almost two decades. Over that time, he’s transitioned from working for mine operators to working for coal miners, advocating wherever and whenever possible for better protections and services for people with and at risk of developing black lung.

Hairston said he used to have faith that the political system — or at least representatives within it — wanted to help coal miners like him.

Now, though, that faith is becoming harder and harder to keep, Hairston said.

“The [people] at the agency meant to protect us [MSHA] are the same ones who [historically] served coal companies,” Hairston said. “How do you trust that, have faith in that? How can you think that’s someone who wants us safe and healthy?”

James McHugh, the deputy assistant secretary for MSHA, was formerly an attorney with the Charleston-based Pence Law Firm PLLC, where coal companies were often clients, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail. 

He also served as an executive at an industrial trade group that filed formal comments against the silica dust rule, namely its strengthened exposure limits and new penalty provisions for mine operators that fail to comply, while MSHA was drafting it in 2023.

Last month, seven of the 21 Republican members of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce sent a letter to McHugh at MSHA asking him to consider amending the silica dust rule as it “places undue and excessive burdens on the mining industry.”

They said doing so would be appropriate given the Trump Administration’s focus on industry deregulation and — while noting nothing about the health risks and outcomes of black lung disease — said the rule “excludes commonsense practices” like rotating shifts in dustier parts of mines and enforcing the use of respirators in areas with high dust.

Emery said such protections aren’t exactly practical; something shared numerous times by leading respiratory experts in public comments given to MSHA during the creation of the silica dust rule.

Rotating shifts, for example, would mean exposing even more miners to silica dust over time. Those who work in other parts of the mine without dust would have to then be in dustier parts, increasing their exposure, and workers would need to be trained on numerous jobs instead of focusing on the ones they are best equipped to do.

And for respirators to work adequately, miners would have to get a proper fit test to ensure their efficacy. Anyone with a beard would not have an adequate fit and someone would need to be responsible for enforcing their use — which could potentially interfere with communication critical to protecting safety and performing jobs while workers are underground in a loud environment.

Emery also said she’s assessed miners with black lung who have used respirators while underground.

“Their scans still came up positive,” Emery said.

For Hairston, the lack of urgency expressed not only by MSHA but also elected officials who he feels should prioritize miners’ safety is disconcerting. Miners, he said, are the only ones who make coal mining and the economic and energy benefits that politicians say come with it possible.

“None of these things they want to happen work without miners and they just use us and use us as props,” Hairston said. “They say they want more coal, want more workers, want more mines — they promise it [in] their campaigns. Well, who are those workers going to be? We only hear them talk about us when the elections come around. They don’t care about the coal miners, only the coal mines. When does that end?”

Protecting the next generation and learning from the toll put on the past

Today, Hairston is facing a difficult decision: whether to commit to using an oxygen tank full time in order to maintain his breathing.

He currently uses oxygen while sleeping. Sometimes throughout the day, especially if doing laborious activities, he’ll use it as needed.

“It’s hard for me to think about being tied to that thing all the time; It’ll completely change my life again,” Hairston said. “I’m still very active — as much as I can be. That’s a big change to how I can move and what I can do if I’ve got to pull around a tank with me everywhere I go.”

It’s a balancing act, Hairston said, to decide when he’s hit his limit. He knows he’s living with a lifelong condition and 24/7 oxygen will be inevitable one day. He’s just not ready to accept that today is that day.

He wants to see younger miners — those just entering the industry or who will in coming years — not be faced with the same inevitability.

But the more time that goes by without regulation on exposure to silica dust means more miners will develop the disease early, Emery said.

More than 40% of the black lung screenings done at her clinic last year came up positive for the disease. 

“If you think about the numbers that we’re seeing right now, we haven’t peaked,” Emery said. “Even if [the silica dust rule] gets implemented tomorrow, there’s still going to have to be massive changes.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 20% of coal miners in Central Appalachia are suffering from black lung — the highest rate detected in more than 25 years. One in 20 of the region’s coal miners are living with the most severe form of the condition.

Emery sees firsthand what a diagnosis can do to people. In the worst cases, it means lives are cut short. In cases caught earlier, the diagnosis still can mean lifestyle changes and adjustments that can be hard for many to accept.

In her office in Oak Hill, West Virginia, she said a regular part of her job is delivering this kind of bad news. She sits and consoles miners — and their families — who are struggling to come to terms with having the disease.

Through tears, she said it never quite gets easier hearing people talk about the parts of their lives that are being robbed from them by black lung and the complications that come with it.

In recent years, these conversations have become more frequent with younger miners. It’s not just grandparents struggling to keep up with young grandchildren anymore; it’s fathers in their 40s and 50s unable to play with their own children, keep up on family vacations or participate in activities their healthy peers enjoy — playing sports, yardwork, home projects. 

Miners across Appalachia are being diagnosed with black lung at younger ages than their predecessors due to a lack of easily accessible coal. Now, they must dig through more silica-rich sandstone to reach the coal that remains.

“This is not just your grandfather’s disease anymore,” Emery said. “It’s your husband’s disease, it’s your brother’s disease, it’s your son’s disease right now, and it’s affecting all of them.”

As time goes on, the consequences of this will grow.

That’s what is so critical about the silica dust rule, Emery said. It’s already too late to protect many of the miners who are working underground now, but the future generations and those recently entering the industry could be saved from developing black lung.

“When the rule is in effect, it will take a while but we will start to see the trail off of disease,” Emery said. “But it is going to take a while to start seeing true change from a newer generation of coal miners coming in. That’s the immediacy here.”

Knowing there is something that could be done to stop this disease from impacting younger generations in the same way as their predecessors is frustrating, Emery said. 

At 48 years old — the same age Hairston was when he was first diagnosed with black lung disease — she foresees many more years in the respiratory health field. Already, she’s seen so many changes occur; miners are more likely to get screened now than in the past, stigma is slowly dissipating over receiving such screenings and, when they do come back positive, there’s more of a willingness for miners to practice their Part 90 rights to transfer to a different, less dusty part of a mine to protect themselves.

But still, she sees so much more that could be done if the willingness to do so existed.

She hopes that, when the time comes for her to retire, she’s treating people in a different environment. One where there’s widespread acceptance and recognition of the importance of preventing black lung and what the costs are if it isn’t stopped.

“I’m hoping by the time I retire, that I’m not giving as much bad news in my line of work, that’s what I wish for,” Emery said. “I love the work I do, I know I’m helping this community and I want to do that as long as I can — I will do that. I want to see us trend in the right direction instead of the wrong direction. We know it’s possible.”

West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.

Industry groups have challenged the rule in court, citing costs, prompting repeated delays. Advocates and medical professionals warn the delays are costing lives, as black lung diagnoses — especially among younger miners — continue to rise.