Coal miners, their families and medical professionals from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia gathered in the nation’s capital on Sept. 30 to meet with senators and representatives to advocate for improving black lung benefits and protections, according to a statement.
The statement said the group, which also included the surviving relatives of miners who died from black lung, urged senators and representatives to pass the Support Our Miners Act, which would increase black lung disability benefit payments and make sure future payments keep up with inflation.
They also stressed the importance of protecting miners from silica dust exposure by implementing the 2024 silica dust rule intended to curb the rise of black lung disease, the statement said. That rule would have limited miners’ exposure to silica dust to 50 mg per cubic meter of air, which is currently the legal standard for all other industries. But the Trump-Vance administration has delayed implementation of the rule for more than a year and is now drafting a new version, according to the statement…