Finally! Tough new safety rules on silica dust are out to protect miners' lungs
Addressing a problem first identified 50 years ago, federal regulators say stricter new rules to limit miners' exposure to silica dust are expected to finally go on the books on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, federal officials posted new rules to protect coal and other miners from toxic silica dust, a growing problem in mines that has left thousands sick and dying.
It took mine safety regulators 50 years to do what federal researchers had long urged: make the exposure limit to silica dust twice as restrictive as currently allowed and directly regulate exposure so citations and fines are possible when miners are overexposed.
The new regulation also imposes for miners the same silica exposure limits that already apply to all other workers in the United States.
"No miner should ever have to sacrifice their health or lungs in order to provide for their family," said Chris Williamson, the assistant secretary of labor
