Stopping Silica Disease Is New Mine Safety Chief’s Top Priority

Improving protections from toxic silica dust is Christopher Williamson’s top priority as he takes the reins of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Williamson, a West Virginia-raised labor attorney and the great-grandson of a union coal miner, took office as MSHA’s assistant secretary April 11 after winning Senate confirmation March 30. Since then, he’s focused on rulemaking around silica dust, a cause of lung disease among miners.

“I’ve jumped in headfirst to get into the weeds of it,” Williamson said in an interview with Bloomberg Law.

The new assistant secretary’s emphasis on silica protections means mine operators will face questions from inspectors about their efforts to reduce airborne silica dust. The agency also will push ahead with regulations to require more protective exposure limits and dust suppression practices.

“We’re working very hard not just to get a rule out the door—but a good one,” Williamson said. “We know that it is going to save lives.”

Williamson’s comments come on the heels of a new MSHA enforcement drive targeted at mines with a history of repeated silica over-exposures.

“If you’re having repeated overexposures to silica, something is not working there,” Williamson said.

All Mines Covered

But the agency’s silica rulemaking efforts are complicated by a goal to have a single regulation that will apply to all surface and underground mines—coal, rock, and metal.

Work on the new rule began in 2019 with a request for information and data on ways to protect miners’ health from exposure to silica dust. The next formal step is for MSHA to issue a proposed rule and invite public comments (RIN:1219-AB36).

Williamson wouldn’t commit to a time frame for the proposed rule.

“I don’t have an exact time, but we’re working as quickly as we can to put a good protective rule in place,” he said.

Overexposure to breathable silica dust can lead to a sometimes fatal lung disease called silicosis, and it’s been detected in a growing number of miners.

MSHA’s existing silica rule allows miners to be exposed to 100 micrograms per cubic meter of airborne silica, twice as much silica as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration allows for factory and construction workers.

Williamson wouldn’t say what MSHA’s proposed limit would be, other than it would be less than the current standard.

The rule could also set other requirements for how mines prevent silica dust from spreading through the air, Williamson said.

OSHA’s current rule, issued in 2016, calls for employers to improve ventilation to filter silica dust out of indoor workplaces and to use sprayed water and vacuum cleaners at construction sites.

Enforcement Drive

MSHA prefers that mine operators reduce exposure on their own.

But Williamson said mines that don’t reduce levels voluntarily will face enforcement actions, such as revocation of approvals for their coal mine ventilation plans.

Williamson also said he wants to determine how more miners with work-related lung diseases can make use of a Mine Act provision—commonly known as Part 90—that requires mine operators to provide workers with alternate mine jobs where there’s less exposure to harmful dusts.

The agency also is continuing to pursue its powered haulage rule, which is aimed at reducing collisions and other accidents involving equipment, such as mammoth dump trucks, used to transport mined material (RIN:1219-AB91).

The Biden administration’s fall 2021 regulatory agenda said the final rule would be issued this October. Williamson wouldn’t specify a release date.

Organizational Changes

Williamson also said he’s evaluating two MSHA organizational changes initiated during the Trump administration.

One change merged MSHA’s coal mine inspection offices and staff with those overseeing other types of mines—what the agency refers to as metal and nonmetal mines. The idea was that with fewer coal mines to inspect, it would be more efficient to merge the two inspection teams.

But Williamson said the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic made it hard to judge the merger’s effectiveness.

“That’s still a relatively new thing,” he said. “We’re still evaluating how it works. There are no plans afoot to change it.”

The other organizational issue is whether MSHA’s 15 district offices should report directly to the enforcement leadership at MSHA’s Arlington, Va., headquarters, or to three regional districts: East, Central, and West.

The Trump administration switched from headquarters to regional oversight. However, district offices returned to talking directly with MSHA headquarters once the Biden administration took over.

Williamson said he wasn’t ready to make new policy in this area.

“I’m trying to be thoughtful about what might make the most sense there,” he said.