A person with severe silicosis has to fight for every breath. A short walk that should only last 20 minutes can take an hour. Revise stairs, food and normal leisure activities are distant memories.
The silicosis is typically caused by years of breathing dust at work and can deteriorate even after the work has been stopped. In recent years, after decades of inactivity, the federal government finally undertook several important steps to reduce the incidence of this old and weakening disease. All of these progress disappears under the Trump administration, only in an example of the widespread destruction that is now taking place throughout the federal government.
The silicosis initially caused the Federal Government's attention in the early 1930s, as hundreds of workers who were set by the carbide of the chemical company Union and its subsidiary to drill a tunnel through a mountain of almost pure silica, died of silicosis. Most workers were black and many were buried in non -marked graves. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's labor minister, Frances Perkins, issued a report on the widespread problem across factories and mines and informed companies that control measures “if they are conscientiously accepted and applied” could prevent silicosis.
Perkins' report was largely unnoticed. Throughout the entire 20th century and the early part of the 21st century, the government's Silica Control standards were not able to adequately protect employees and prevent the disease in the workplace. Hundreds of workers who were busy in mines, foundries and on construction sites developed silicosis, and some died of it. Many others died of lung cancer, which were also caused by Silica exposure.
The 1970 law, which the professional security and health authority (OSHA) founded, also started a scientific research agency, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh). In 1974, Niosh Osha provided strong evidence that his standard exposure standard had to be strictly and that too many workers were exposed to too much silicon dioxide and then suffer significantly. (One of us, David, led Osha during the Obama government for more than seven years. The other, Gregor, led the Niosh for 15 years [MSHA] for three years.)
The OSHA process for determining this type of health standard is not known for its speed. The Osha began working on an increased Silica standard in 1997 and 19 years later showed new rules for the general industry and the construction of construction (while David headed the agency) – but the agency essentially contained no mines and quarries that come under the authority of MSHA. Since the workers, if the workers are exposed to a high level of silica, employers are required to use technical controls to reduce exposure. If the silica levels in the air are still too high, employers must also with Niosh-certified facial factors such as N95 (the N stands for “niosch”).
In many years in the Niosh coal consultant health surveillance program (CWHSP), medical tests and advice for the identification of workers who showed early signs of lung diseases, including silicosis, including lung diseases (CWHSP), provided for years in the Congress Medical Tests and Advice. According to the law on the security and health of the federal government, miners with a dust disease such as silicosis have the legal right to transfer to jobs with less dust pollution and to monitor their exposure frequently. The X -rays of Niosh's trained and certified experts help sick miners to move into safer work areas, which can improve their prognosis.
Despite Osha's new standard of Osha, the standard of MSHA remained out of date and more miners became sick, especially younger miners. The risk was increased by changes in mining practices such as long hours, the mining of seams with less coal and more silica and the use of new mining devices that generate more dust. MSHA started working on a new Silica standard during the Obama management, but this work was hired when the first Trump government came to power in 2017. The agency started the work when Joe Bide took office and last year it finally published an increased pebble acid standard.
In the few months since the beginning of the second Trump government, the efforts of the federal government to control silicosis were destroyed. Elon Musks Doge fired the entire CWHSP team and most Niosh engineers, employees and other scientists who are researching to make mining less dangerous. The White House made it clear that practically all functions of Niosh are permanently abolished.
In addition, the President signed four executive commands at the beginning of April to promote mining and the use of coal. Then, days before the rule of MSHA could come into force, “the new management of the Ministry of Labor gave the enforcement” and claimed that employers had difficulty certifying compliance with Niosh in order to certify the respirator and measuring devices that are necessary for the implementation of the guidelines.
Although the Trump administration has not yet announced major shortcuts from OSHA, the agency's ability to prevent silicosis is also threatened. Doge has announced that 11 Osha offices are closed together with 34 MSHA offices, which will lead to fewer inspections, undoubtedly followed by further injuries and illnesses.
Even without these cuts, silicosis already celebrated a comeback, this time in another industry: the production and installation of kitchen plates with an artificial stone. In the Los Angeles region, more than 200 workers, almost all Latino immigrants, have developed silicosis. Some of the lung transplants required. There are probably thousands of employees across the country, but the real number is unknown. Most workers in this industry are busy in small manufacturing shops, and the Osha is so mild and underestimated that it had difficulty finding only the business where the work is done.
The prevention of silicosis is exactly the kind of essential work in public health, which government employees are recognized with little or not at all. When these guidelines work, life will be saved – while nobody knows who has not received silicosis due to good regulation and enforcement. But soon enough, if the destruction of the Trump government is not corrected by Niosh, MSHA and Osha, the workers will certainly receive silicosis due to the inadequate protection for public health-and these losses will be quite visible if the people are certainly unhappy enough for the Trump government to get sick.