Black Lung Rates Surge as Miners’ Union Demands Action

The United Mine Workers of America made an “urgent demand” of the federal government on Thursday for the “immediate, uncompromised” enforcement of previously approved policies and rules that would protect coal miners from incurable black lung disease.

The call from the UMWA comes after new research this month shows that black lung rates have increased to an almost 50-year high after years of decline, with the highest rates of the disease found in miners from central Appalachia.

“More needs to be done, and it needs to be done now,” said UMWA International President Brian Sanson in a news release. “Miners are wearing masks, they are following rules, and yet they are still breathing in killer dust. We will not stand by while federal regulations are ignored and sat on while our members and coalfield workers pay for it with their lives.”

According to the peer-reviewed research, which was published by workers with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a third of miners in central Appalachia who have spent 25 years or more underground now have black lung. That’s a fourfold increase compared to 1999, per the research.

Previous research reported that 1 in 5 miners in central Appalachia, about 20.6% of them, had been diagnosed with the disease.

The new research also shows that miners with as few as 15 years of experience underground are also suffering from a rise in disease rates that has not been seen in nearly 40 years.

And while the rates are increasing, the federal government has time and time again delayed interventions that experts say will slow the development of black lung in vulnerable miners.

A federal rule that would have limited the allowable exposure limits for silica dust in coal mines for the first time ever was initially set to go into effect for coal operations in 2025 after being finalized by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Mine Health and Safety Administration in 2024.

The rule, if implemented, would have been the first of its kind for silica dust in mines, despite evidence showing the dangers of exposure have existed for decades and other industries already enforce exposure limits.

In addition to levying limits on exposure and implementing new action levels when a certain amount of silica dust is present in mines, it would have also required mine operators and companies to offer free medical monitoring for their workers with the hope of detecting black lung and other respiratory diseases earlier.

But, under the Trump administration, implementation of the rule was pushed from April 2025 back to August 2025. That month, it was pushed again to October. And in October, it was delayed yet again.

The lack of implementation stems from a lawsuit led by the National Sand, Stone and Gravel Association against the Labor Department requesting that the federal government block the implementation of the rule completely. None of the statutes affecting the NSSGA were slated to go into effect until 2027, per the rule.

In April, federal regulators indefinitely delayed the rule until court proceedings wrap up.

Now, the UMWA has three demands for the federal government and the court system that advocates believe could have immediate impact for affected miners:

• Lift the legal stay that is stopping enforcement of the silica dust rule and begin enforcement of it immediately, without further administrative delays
• Refuse requests from industry groups to rely on personal respirators or job rotations for required ventilation controls instead of implementing limits on silica dust exposure while underground
• Increase federal oversight through random dust sampling on mines and enforce strict penalties against operators that are found to be not in compliance

Sanson said too much leeway has been given to industry groups and operators while miners have been left out to dry with little to no protections against black lung.

“Mining associations filed lawsuits arguing this rule hurts business, but what about the human lives destroyed every single day this rule sits on a shelf?” Sanson said. “Every day federal regulators drag their feet and sit on this rule, another working father, mother, husband, wife, sister or brother contracts an incurable, fatal disease. Someone’s life is forever changed. A company’s profit margin cannot take precedence over a miner’s right to draw a breath.”