Silicosis, a preventable but incurable lung disease, is increasingly affecting younger workers in the US, from Appalachian coalminers to Latino countertop fabrication workers, even though experts have long known how to stop it. The trend has worsened as mining and stone industry groups fight new dust-exposure regulations and the Trump administration declines to defend a Biden-era safety rule in court, leaving protections in legal limbo.

The disease is caused by inhaling fine crystalline silica dust, and prevention relies on limiting exposure through monitoring and dust suppression. A 2024 Mine Safety and Health Administration rule cut the permissible silica exposure limit from 100 to 50 micrograms per cubic metre per eight-hour shift, but industry groups, including the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association and the American Exploration & Mining Association, challenged its implementation requirements, leading a federal appeals court to stay the rule after the administration failed to defend it. Meanwhile, coalminers in Virginia are being diagnosed with black lung in their 40s rather than their 60s or later, and countertop fabrication workers, including a 38-year-old who died in California, have suffered severe illness and death from occupational silica exposure since outbreaks were first documented around 2018.