Trump administration to reconsider black lung protection rule, costing more miners’ lives

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 27, 2025

CONTACTS:
Quenton King, Government Affairs Specialist, quenton@appvoices.org, (304)-579-7366

Yesterday, the Department of Labor and the mining industry filed a status update in the lawsuit related to implementation of the silica dust rule, requesting to indefinitely suspend activities in the case while the DOL undertakes a new “limited” rulemaking to reconsider portions of the rule.

Silica is a significant contributor to the rise in black lung disease in coal miners, and it causes silicosis in other mining occupations. One in five long-tenured coal miners in Central Appalachia has black lung disease, but younger miners are also increasingly being diagnosed with the disease. 

After years of advocacy and calls for protections against black lung disease, in April 2024 the Biden administration finalized a rule to reduce miners’ exposure to silica dust. The rule was supposed to go into effect in April 2025, and companies would have had at least a year to fully comply. Now, the rule is delayed indefinitely, prolonging the deadly risk to miners’ lives. 

Statement from Quenton King, Government Affairs Specialist: “Every delay in reducing the amount of silica dust miners are exposed to means more miners becoming sick and dying. Our nation’s miners and their families made their voices loud and clear when they protested outside the Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, D.C., in October — the silica rule delay is unacceptable and is a broken promise to miners.”