Manchin among senators urge mine safety agency to do more to protect coal miners from silica exposur
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was one of five senators — all Democrats — to urge the Mine Safety and Health Administration to do more to protect coal miners from a potentially life-threatening carcinogen and contributing cause of black lung disease.
Manchin, along with Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Mark Warner of Virginia, said in a news release Monday that a report, stating the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General found that MSHA has not sufficiently protected coal miners from exposure to respirable crystalline silica, was cause for “urgent action.”
The OIG report found that MSHA’s silica exposure limit is out of date, as the agency has maintained essentially the same silica limit established in the 1960s.
Issued Nov. 12, the report recommended that Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health David Zatezalo adopt a lower legal exposure limit for silica in coal mines based on recent scientific evidence, establish a separate standard for silica that allows MSHA to issue a citation and monetary penalty when violations of its silica exposure limit occur, and enhance its sampling program to increase the frequency of inspector samples where needed.
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