The 1970 law that established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also launched a scientific-research agency, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), whose job included providing OSHA with recommendations for health standards. In 1974, NIOSH provided OSHA with strong evidence that its silica-exposure standard needed to be more stringent—that too many workers were being exposed to too much silica, and suffering greatly as a result. (One of us, David, ran OSHA for more than seven years during the Obama administration. The other, Gregory, led the NIOSH Division of Respiratory Disease Studies for 15 years and served as deputy assistant secretary of labor in the Mine Safety and Health Administration [MSHA] for three years.)
OSHA’s process for setting this sort of health standard is not known for its speed. OSHA started working on a strengthened silica standard in 1997 and finally issued new rules for general industry and construction 19 years later (while David was running the agency)—but, significantly, the agency didn’t include mines and quarries, which are under the authority of MSHA, in the Department of Labor. Ever since, when workers face high levels of airborne silica, employers have been required to use engineering controls to reduce exposure; if airborne silica levels are still too high, employers must also provide workers with NIOSH-certified face masks such as N95s.
For many years, lung-disease experts employed in the congressionally mandated NIOSH Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program (CWHSP) provided medical testing and counseling to miners in an effort to identify workers who were showing early signs of lung disease, including silicosis. Under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act, miners with a dust disease such as silicosis have the legal right to transfer to jobs with less dust exposure, and to have their exposure going forward monitored frequently. The chest X-ray readings of NIOSH’s trained and certified experts help sick miners move to safer work areas, which may improve their prognosis.
Despite OSHA’s new silica standard, MSHA’s standard remained outdated, and more miners were getting sick, particularly younger miners. Risk has been driven up by changes in mining practices, such as longer hours, the mining of seams that have less coal and more silica, and the use of new mining equipment that generates more dust.
In the few months since the second Trump administration began, the federal government’s efforts to control silicosis have been destroyed. Elon Musk’s DOGE fired the entire CWHSP team and most of the NIOSH engineers, staff, and other scientists who are doing research to make mining less dangerous. The White House made clear that virtually all of NIOSH’s functions are being permanently scrapped.
DOGE has announced that 11 OSHA offices, along with 34 MSHA offices, will be closed, which will lead to fewer inspections, undoubtedly followed by more injuries and illnesses.
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