After a years-long rule-making process at the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), coal mines will have to keep workers safe from toxic silica dust by lowering the legal exposure limit from 100 micrograms to 50 micrograms over an 8-hour work shift.
Experts have long-known that silica dust is causing a surge in the incurable black lung disease among central Appalachian coal miners. It’s caused as miners inhale bits of the rock that’s being pulverized to get to harder-to-reach coal seams.
“You want to know what it’s like to have black lung?” John Robinson, a former miner battling the disease asked at a roundtable discussion in Louisville on Monday. “Grab your pillow off your bed, go outside, and get your push mower going in your yard.”
Other industries who extract things like metal, sand and gravel will also need to comply with the silica standards. For the first time ever, they’ll also be required to X-ray workers’ lungs. Those X-rays will be stored in a database managed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
Advertisement
Those industries have said they don’t see the same epidemic coal has with black lung, but regulators hypothesize that’s because they don’t look.
“My guess is, that when we go looking for a problem, when we go looking at these miners and their chest films, we’re probably going to see silica in those lungs,” NIOSH researcher Scott Laney said.
U.S. Representative Morgan McGarvey hosted Monday’s roundtable in Louisville with federal experts discussing the impact of the rule. There are no active coal mines in his district, but he is the only Democrat in Kentucky’s congressional delegation.
Officials have lauded the Biden administration for the measure, which was promised but undelivered in multiple previous administrations.
“I’ve always considered myself, yes, representing my district, but also being a representative of our state,” McGarvey said. “When you talk about the safety of our workers, to me, that’s never been a political issue.”
Advertisement
McGarvey’s office said the lawmaker wanted to learn from federal experts about what is needed “to ensure effective implementation and enforcement of this rule.”
One thing that might make it difficult to implement and enforce? A flat budget at the federal mine agency. Congress recently denied a $50 million budget increase for more mine inspections and more silica dust sampling.
“We just need to help get MSHA more money to help enforce this,” National Black Lung Association Vice President Vonda Robinson said. “They need more guys to go out and help, to be able to enforce this.”
MSHA Assistant Secretary Chris Williamson speaks at a press conference on Monday in Louisville.
“MSHA has had flat budgets for, I don’t know how many years now,” MSHA Assistant Secretary Chris Williamson said at a panel earlier in June. “You’re talking about people because in almost every federal agency, the cost driver is personnel. We will do the best we can with what we’re given to work with, but it will remain a priority.”
Advertisement
Appalachian advocacy groups have criticized the measure for largely relying on companies to accurately self-report high silica dust samples. They say it gives companies “every incentive to continue cheating and hiding dangers” and compared it to letting a “fox guard the hen house.”
Williamson has repeatedly promised that any companies caught cheating on the silica testing and reporting requirements will be dealt with severely.
Meanwhile, the silica rule is facing two separate legal challenges from mining industry associations. They’re asking federal judges to analyze the rule for its legality.
“Worker safety and health is a core value of our association, but unfortunately, this rule has missed the mark,” National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association CEO & President Michael Johnson said in a written statement. “MSHA’s crystalline silica rule includes provisions that were not included in the proposed rule, for which we were not provided the opportunity to comment, as required by law.”
Although companies are expected to begin lower silica dust levels now, enforcement will begin in April 2025 for coal companies and 2026 for non-coal.
Advertisement
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Fasig-Tipton has cataloged 348 entries for the main catalog of its Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale Feb. 3, in Lexington. The sale will begin at 10 a.m. ET.
“Kentucky Winter Mixed offers an important marketplace for buyers at all levels before the breeding sheds open,” said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning. “There is good quality and variety among the racing and breeding stock this year, as well as a large group of short yearlings that will be a popular draw.”
Covering sires represented include Arabian Lion , Arcangelo, Constitution , Corniche , Elite Power , Forte , Girvin , Gunite , Hard Spun , Jackie’s Warrior , Mage , McKinzie , Nyquist , Olympiad , Oscar Performance , Volatile , and Yaupon .
Yearling sires cataloged include Candy Ride , Charlatan , Corniche, Epicenter , Ghostzapper , Girvin, Golden Pal , Maclean’s Music , Maxfield , Olympiad, Practical Joke , Street Sense , Tiz the Law , Uncle Mo, and Vekoma .
Advertisement
The catalog’s front cover spotlights sale graduate Adare Manor , a 2024 Eclipse Award finalist for champion older mare and winner of the Apple Blossom Stakes (G1) and Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1). The back cover features additional 2024 graded stakes-winning graduates Fast as Flight , First Peace , Leave No Trace , Olivia Darling , and Running Bee .
Sign up for BloodHorse Daily
Entries remain open for the sale’s supplemental catalog. Fasig-Tipton will continue to accept supplemental entries over the next few weeks.
The main catalog for the Kentucky Winter Mixed may now be viewed online. Print catalogs will be available early next week.
Online bidding and phone bidding services will be available.
Advertisement
This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — Mason Nicholson’s 20 points helped Jacksonville State defeat Western Kentucky 73-67 on Thursday night.
Nicholson also contributed 12 rebounds and three blocks for the Gamecocks (9-6, 1-1 Conference USA). Quel’Ron House scored 14 points and added nine rebounds and seven assists. Jaron Pierre Jr. went 5 of 18 from the field (1 for 7 from 3-point range) to finish with 12 points.
Advertisement
Enoch Kalambay finished with 24 points for the Hilltoppers (10-6, 1-2). Julius Thedford added 17 points.
House scored eight points in the first half and Jacksonville State went into halftime trailing 27-24. Nicholson scored 14 second-half points.
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
Kentucky’s loss to Georgia felt like deja vu in that the issues that plagued the Cats vs. Ohio State and Clemson came roaring back. Once again, Kentucky let a physical team bully them around, turned the ball over too often, and didn’t create enough shots. Even though it feels like the blueprint to beat Kentucky is laminated after Tuesday night, Mark Pope believes all of those issues are fixable, even in the short term.
“Listen, it’s not triage where we have a bad team,” Pope said today. “We have a really good team. We didn’t play particularly well and so there’s a lot of things that were a little bit anomalous, where we just didn’t play great. And certainly, Georgia had some contribution to that.”
Ahead of his team’s trip to No. 14 Mississippi State, which is even more physical and talented than Georgia, Pope outlined two areas of focus: rebounding and ball protection. Georgia outrebounded Kentucky 41-34 on Tuesday, the fourth game in a row the Cats have lost the battle of the boards. On Saturday, they’ll face a Mississippi State team that ranks just outside the top 30 nationally in offensive rebounding rate (35.9%).
“We’re continuing to work on the glass right now. That’s been something interesting because we had been one of the top defensive rebounding percentage teams in the country, and that’s kind of bit us, a little bit. And so we’re rethinking some approaches there that hopefully will see immediate progress on, because we’ve been really good, right? We’ve just got to be good in this league right now, with the physicality and the way this is being played.”
Advertisement
Pope seemed less concerned about the 14 turnovers the Cats committed vs. Georgia. Kentucky still ranks No. 3 in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.94), but that number would be a lot higher if not for their losses.
“We’ve been really good in terms of ball protection. I think we’ve been number one in the country. I think we’re close so I don’t think it’s reinventing the wheel for us on the ball protection side. We just didn’t do it well in this game.”
“So, there are certainly areas that we’re going to continue to grow and fine-tune, but there’s not a lot of total restructuring going on.”
Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.
Advertisement
All season, Pope has talked about the importance of getting his guys not to default to bad habits. The Georgia loss showed that’s still a work in progress. After the game, Pope talked about how distracted his guys seemed on the floor, whether it be from the crowd, the whistles, a shot not going in, etc. Getting them to tune that out and lock in on each other will be what determines how far they go this season.
“Our guys trust and believe in each other, but when you start talking about trust and belief in where you go for answers, that’s a process that everybody is trying to find. It’s not a matter of not being able to find it. I mean, our guys have found it a lot this season. Like there’s been a whole lot of trust and faith on this team, where we’ve gone to the well, the right well, to find answers in the biggest games that have been played all season, right? But being able to get there every single time is part of the challenge, right? At the end of the year, it’s, can you get there six straight games? Can you go to the right space with all the different distractions, different vibes? Can you keep going right to the same place and keep trusting over and over and over again?
“And so that’s kind of the space we’re living in right now, is, how consistently can we be in the right spot on the floor? How consistently can our faith be placed in the right space? How consistently can we tune out all the distractions that happen around the game and kind of be locked in just to the moment? We’re fully capable. We’ve done it. We’ve done it at the highest level. We’ve done it pretty consistently. But now can we do it every time?”
When it comes to being more physical, Pope said that’s something everyone in the SEC is striving for right now. He just wants his team to understand how to do it and when to do it.
“The game always gets more and more physical in the league, and so our guys understanding — and there’s also a part of understanding where you can be really, really physical and where you can’t, right? And that’s part of our determinations. There are a lot of facets to that. One is just the physics aspect of it, of having a low center of gravity and kind of being the hit-first guy and a first hit and second, there’s all the schematics and the skill of it.
Advertisement
“And then there’s also the mentality of it, and the IQ of it. The mentality of it is kind of this aggression side of it where you’re always thinking about contact, contact, contact, and then the IQ of it is understanding when and where it’s appropriate and where it can be utilized and where it’s important.”
