U.S. government to 'reconsider' black lung protections as coal miners fight to keep them: 'We need to get this done for the younger generation'

An attorney for the United States Labor Department told E&E News this week that Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer intends to “reconsider and seek comments” on portions of a rule established under the Biden administration. The proposed rule was intended to bring coal miners' exposure limits to airborne silica down to 50 micrograms as well as require silica testing in more mines and enhance medical surveillance. 

The remark comes after a department spokesperson told the courts as much last week, suggesting the rule may be rolled back even while the Trump administration invests in growing the coal industry and pulls out of clean energy projects. Meanwhile, miners are contracting black lung disease — or coal workers' pneumoconiosis — at younger and younger ages.

The occupational disease is progressive and incurable but preventable. It's caused by inhaling coal and silica dust, which scars the lungs and can lead to premature death. It disproportionately affects the predominantly male mining workforce, but has historically been most common among older workers. Now, more miners in their 30s and 40s are being diagnosed, according to the New York Times.“We need to get this done for the younger generation,” retired miner Andy Martin told the newspaper in October.

E&E News reported that data from the Labor Department shows that "the highest rates [of the disease] — 1 in 5 miners — are occurring in areas like coal-rich Appalachia that have seen decades of heavy extraction." But it would be a mistake to ignore the global burden of this serious condition. 

In April, researchers from Hangzhou Normal University published an analysis in the journal Frontiers of pneumoconiosis incidence over three decades and across 204 countries and territories. "The ongoing challenge posed by pneumoconiosis highlights the critical necessity for global collaboration to tackle occupational health disparities," the co-authors wrote. "By emphasizing prevention, enhancing health care systems, and adapting policies to the changing industrial landscape, the international community can make significant strides toward the 2030 objective of eradicating pneumoconiosis."

Additionally, while the great majority of cases have been diagnosed in men, it's worth noting that this means "women are often underrepresented in coal mining research," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which conducted an analysis to address this gap in 2024.

While future research might inform improved prevention and treatment strategies tailored to meet community needs, E&E reported that the Biden administration had estimated more than 1,000 deaths and 3,700 cases of black lung could be prevented by implementing its rule in the U.S. The rule was set to take effect in April before being put on hold. Mining companies and trade organizations have fought the policy. 

Miners and their supporters, though, have been pushing to realize its protections. As a part of their campaign, a group gathered in Washington, D.C., in October outside the Department of Labor to protest the rule's delayed implementation.

Allies have the potential to amplify the cause by exerting pressure as political constituents and energy consumers, calling on elected officials and coal companies to protect American workers. Advocating for a just transition — away from the polluting and harmful fossil fuel industry and toward affordable clean energy sources without leaving workers behind — could help too. 

Coal miners might tell you they already know how to avoid leaving anyone behind. Worker-led black lung associations emerged in the 1960s in response to the sharpening health threat. Today, a site managed by the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center says members of these associations "work to connect miners, their wives, family members and concerned community members to the information they need to find treatment and understand how to obtain the benefits they have earned, as well as ways to work together to advocate for issues that affect miners with black lung."