MSHA pauses rule to protect miners from toxic silica dust days before compliance date

The MSHA’s announcement followed a federal court putting the rule on hold Friday at the request of industry groups who argued it was too far-reaching and reported the agency had been unresponsive to their request for a court-issued rule pause. The MSHA’s notice cited sweeping Trump administration staff cuts within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, saying they could impact supply of certified respirators and personal dust monitors.

“Given the unforeseen NIOSH restructuring, and other technical reasons, MSHA offers this four-month temporary pause to provide time for operators to secure necessary equipment and otherwise come into compliance,� the MSHA said.

The MSHA said the pause would give the agency time to aid in mine industry compliance, including helping accredited laboratories “gain proficiency� in agency analytical methods.

The pause doesn’t impact an April 8, 2026, compliance date for metal and nonmetal mines.

Mine worker allies already had decried Friday’s federal court decision putting the rule on hold. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit order hinted at a short timeframe for a final decision on a longer-term pause, requiring a response to the motion to put the rule on hold by Wednesday and a reply from the industry groups by Thursday this week.

Now a longer-term pause is in place, drawing more ire from miner advocates.

“Congress was clear that the first priority and concern in mining must be the safety and health of miners, and this decision not to begin enforcement of this critical rule to protect miners from toxic silica dust flies in the face of the Mine Act’s purpose and MSHA’s mission,� Chris Williamson, the MSHA’s head from 2022 through the end of the Biden administration, told the Gazette-Mail Wednesday.

“The ongoing attacks on mining health and safety are going to have real consequences in coal country in the form of more accidents, more illness, and more death,� Rebecca Shelton, policy director at the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, a Kentucky-based nonprofit law firm that represents miners, said in a statement slamming the MSHA’s announcement and the NIOSH cuts. “There is no justification for these actions.�

Former MSHA head blasts agency ‘unilateral decision’

Williamson, who shepherded the rule to finalization last year, noted the MSHA chose the compliance dates for coal and metal and nonmetal mines and explained the decision through a rulemaking process.

“This unilateral decision, without any opportunity for input from miners or stakeholders, to not enforce a rule that had already been in effect over nine months already rests on shaky legal grounds,� Williamson said.

Williamson called “bizarre� a legal disclaimer within the MSHA’s Wednesday notice saying it “does not create or remove any rights or duties and does not affect any other aspect of MSHA or Department of Labor regulations� isn’t a final agency action and may be changed or rescinded.

“Every day this rule is delayed, more miners are exposed to deadly dust,� United Mine Workers of America spokesperson Erin Bates said in an email Tuesday in response to the court putting the rule on temporary hold. “The epidemic of black lung disease continues to claim lives, and we cannot afford further delays.�

Black lung especially pervasive in W.Va. amid NIOSH cuts

The stakes are especially high for the silica rule’s implementation and enforcement in West Virginia and central Appalachia.

NIOSH researchers found in a study of lung exams collected from 1970 to 2017 published in 2018 that 20.6% of miners with careers of 25 years or more in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia had black lung — a pronounced increase following a national low point in the late 1990s.

The rule lowered the permissible exposure for respirable crystalline silica to the limit recommended in 1974 by the NIOSH, following years of escalating incidence of black lung disease among increasingly younger central Appalachian coal miners.

Cuts to hundreds of NIOSH staff, including at the agency’s Morgantown site and mining research divisions in Pittsburgh and Spokane, Washington, are expected to gut the institute’s ability to conduct studies that focus on mining health and safety, respirator testing and certification, and firefighter health.

MSHA’s staff also has been strained since President Donald Trump retook office by his administration’s federal hiring freeze and voluntary resignation offers. The Trump administration also has posted lease termination notices for two MSHA office leases in West Virginia and 33 nationwide and has declined to say how or whether the agency may reconfigure.

“There are real consequences to these cuts and closures, and they are going to be intensely felt in coal country,� Quenton King, government affairs specialist at Appalachian Voices, a miner and environmental advocacy group, said in a statement. “When black lung rates get higher, there won’t be a mystery — it will be as a result of these actions to let coal operators do whatever they want while miners pay the price.�