People with severe silicosis must fight for every breath. A short walk takes only 20 minutes to take an hour. Climbing stairs, groceries and normal entertainment are far-reaching memories.
Silicification is usually attracted by the years of silicon powder at work and can worsen even after get off work. After decades of inaction in recent years, the federal government has finally taken several important steps to reduce the incidence of this ancient and debilitating disease. All progress is disappearing under the Trump administration, but an example of widespread damage happening in the federal government now.
Silicon oxidation disease first caught the attention of the federal government in the early 1930s, when hundreds of workers employed by chemical companies’ union carbides and their subsidiaries drilled tunnels through nearly pure silica deaths from silicon oxidation. Most workers are black, and many are buried in unmarked graves. Franklin D.
Most of Perkins' report has received no attention. Throughout the 20th and early 21st century, government silica control standards failed to adequately protect workers and prevent workplace disease. Hundreds of workers employed from mines, foundries and construction sites have developed silicosis, and some have died from it. Many others die of lung cancer, which is also caused by silica exposure.
The 1970 law established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also launched a scientific research institution, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), whose work includes providing advice to OSHA on health standards. In 1974, NIOSH provided strong evidence for OSHA that its silica exposure standards needed to be stricter - too many workers were exposed to excessive silica and thus suffered greatly. (One of us, David, ran for more than seven years during the Obama administration. Gregory led Niosh’s respiratory disease research division for 15 years and served as deputy deputy secretary of labor for the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) for three years.
OSHA's process of setting such health standards is not known for its speed. OSHA began to develop enhanced silica standards in 1997 and eventually issued new rules for general industry and construction 19 years later (David operates the agency), but it is important that the agency does not include mines and quarries under the MSHA authorization of the Ministry of Labor. Since then, when workers face high levels of aerial silica, employers are required to use engineering controls to reduce exposure. If the onboard silicon dioxide levels are still too high, the employer must also provide workers with NIOSH certified masks, such as the N95S ( n stands for "niosh").
Over the years, lung disease experts used in the Congress-mandated NIOSH Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program (CWHSP) have provided medical testing and consulting services to miners to identify workers with early symptoms, including lung disease. Under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act, mine tools with dust diseases, such as silicosis, have the legal right to transfer work with less dust exposure to work and are often monitored. NIOSH’s well-trained and certified specialist chest X-ray readings can help sick miners move to safer work areas, which may improve their prognosis.
Although OSHA is the new silica standard, MSHA standards are still outdated and more miners are getting sick, especially younger miners. Changes in mining practices (such as seams with less coal and less silica) and changes in mining habits of new mining equipment using new mining equipment drive risks. MSHA began setting new silica standards during the Obama administration, but the work had stopped when the first Trump administration came to power in 2017. The agency resumed work when Joe Biden took office and finally released enhanced silica standards last year.
Federal efforts to control silicon oxidation have been destroyed in the months since the start of the second Trump administration. Elon Musk's governor fired the entire CWHSP team as well as most NIOSH engineers, staff and other scientists who are doing research to reduce their mining risks. The White House made it clear that almost all Neoshe's functions were permanently abandoned.
In addition, in early April, the president signed four executive orders to promote mining and use of coal. Then, a few days before the MSHA rules could take effect, the Labor Department’s new leadership claimed that employers would be difficult to comply with because NIOSH no longer had employees who demonstrated the respirators and the measurements needed to implement policies.
Although the Trump administration has not announced layoffs to OSHA, the agency's ability to prevent silicosis is also under threat. Doge announced that it will close 11 OSHA offices and 34 MSHA offices, which will result in fewer examinations and undoubtedly lead to more harm and illness.
Even without these cuts, this time it has made a comeback in another industry: the manufacturing and installation of artificial stone kitchen countertops. In the Los Angeles area, there are more than 200 workers, and almost all Latino immigrants have developed silicosis. Some require lung transplants. There may be thousands of affected workers nationwide, but the real numbers are not yet clear. Most workers in the industry are used in small manufacturing stores, and OSHA is inadequate in resources and inefficient in functionality that it is difficult to find only stores that get the job done.
Preventing silicosis is exactly the basic public health work carried out by government employees with little or no recognition. When these policies work, life is saved - because no one can know who is not silicified due to good regulation and enforcement. But soon, if the Trump administration’s destruction of NIOSH, MSHA and OSHA is uncorrected, then workers will certainly suffer silicification due to insufficient protection of public health, and these losses will be very obvious, if not for the Trump administration, that will surely give the people the unfortunate to be sick.