The coal mining industry has been a backbone of American energy and economy for over a century—but it has always been a dangerous occupation. Today, coal miners face not only the physical risks of mining, but chronic health threats, evolving science, and policy pressures.

This article explores how many people work in coal mining now, what health and safety standards are under threat or in flux, what diseases and hazards coal miners face, and what steps are proposed or should be adopted to protect workers.

How Many Coal Miners Are There, and What’s the Economic Footprint?

  • As of August 2025, there are about 40,300 coal mining jobs in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • Coal production has declined over recent years: in 2023, the U.S. mined approximately 578 million short tons of coal, down from earlier levels, with the number of mines modestly increasing to about 560 but productivity (measured as production per employee hour) falling.
  • Coal mining still contributes meaningfully to local economies, especially in Appalachia. For example, coal employment in Appalachian coal counties is disproportionately higher relative to other regions.
  • Beyond mining itself, each lost coal job has ripple effects. Studies show that a drop in coal mining employment tends to reduce employment in associated industries, household earnings, and economic stability in coal-dependent regions.

What Policies Are Under Threat — and Their Impacts

Several regulations designed to protect coal miners are facing delays, legal challenges, or possible weakening. Key policy areas include:

  • Silica Dust Rule: In June 2024, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) finalized a rule to reduce miners' exposure to respirable crystalline silica, setting the permissible exposure limit at 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air for a full shift. It also requires improved respiratory protection.
  • However, enforcement of this rule has been delayed. MSHA announced enforcement would be paused from its initially planned implementation date (April 2025) and moved to August 2025. The delay has been challenged in courts.
  • Industry groups argue the silica rule imposes high costs, especially for smaller mines. Advocates argue the cost of delay is measured in workers’ lives and illness.
  • Other policy threats: potential cuts to oversight capacity (e.g., MSHA offices), reductions in funding for health surveillance and screening programs; changes in how quickly regulatory decisions are made. These risk weakening protections. While specific proposals may vary, stakeholders are tracking rulemaking at MSHA and related agencies.

Diseases: Black Lung, Pneumoconiosis, and More

What Is Pneumoconiosis?
  • Pneumoconiosis is a form of lung disease caused by inhalation of dust (coal dust, silica, etc.) that leads to lung tissue damage. Over time, the dust causes inflammation and fibrosis, leading to breathing difficulty, reduced lung function, and in severe cases, disability and death.
What is Black Lung?
  • Black lung disease, more formally coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), is a type of pneumoconiosis specifically caused by coal dust exposure, often including silica. It has simple and complicated forms; the complicated form—progressive massive fibrosis—can be disabling.
Prevalence and Trends
  • In Central Appalachia, screenings show about 20% of coal miners have some form of black lung disease. A 2018 report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found that about one in 10 coal miners with 25 or more years of underground mining experience developed black lung disease. In Central Appalachia, the rate is even higher with one in five workers developing the condition.
  • Severe forms of the disease also continue, even among younger miners, suggesting that current protections are insufficient in many locations.
  • Research into respirable coal mine dust (RCMD) shows overall declines in dust levels and disease incidence where strong rules are enforced, but in many mines, especially where silica content in dust is high, disease rates remain elevated.

Other Hazards Coal Miners Face

Coal miners are exposed to a broad spectrum of occupational hazards beyond lung disease:

  • Roof collapses, rock falls, and other structural failures — underground mining remains risky in terms of geological instability.
  • Hearing loss from constant exposure to loud equipment, explosions, ventilation fans, etc.
  • Lung cancers and other respiratory illnesses tied not just to coal dust but also to silica, diesel exhaust, radon, and other toxins. A study reported that 94% of coal miners had coal mining-related pulmonary diseases, with 40% suffering from pneumoconiosis and 37% from bronchitis.
  • Other physical injuries: Falls, equipment entanglement, transport accidents within mines, and electrical hazards.
  • Heat stress and poor air quality occurs in some deep mines or poorly ventilated underground areas.

Why Has the Coal-Mining Industry Shrunk?

Several factors drive the decline of coal mining employment and production in the U.S.:

  1. Mechanization and Automation: Modern mining techniques require fewer workers. A mine can produce more coal with fewer people.
  2. Competition from Other Energy Sources: Natural gas, renewables (solar, wind), and cheaper power sources have reduced demand for coal, especially for electricity generation.
  3. Regulatory and Environmental Pressure: Emissions regulations, climate policy, and pressure to reduce carbon emissions have disfavored coal usage.
  4. Resource Depletion & Geographical Logistics: Coal seams close to the surface have largely been mined out; new coal is often deeper or more difficult to access, increasing cost.

The decline in jobs has not always been matched by decline in production—production has sometimes held relatively steady due to increased productivity per worker—but for many coal communities, the economic losses are substantial.

Prevalence & Trends (Expanded)

This section looks more closely at how disease occurrence and policy enforcement have evolved:

  • Studies show that coal workers screened under the Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program (CWHSP) have seen reduced prevalence of simple pneumoconiosis in many operations over past decades—but more dangerous forms persist, especially where silica content is high in respirable coal dust.
  • Black lung disease has been increasing among younger miners—some in their 30s and 40s—an alarming trend indicating that recent exposure levels, especially to silica, may still be too high.
  • The new silica rule (reducing exposure limit) is anticipated to prevent over 1,000 deaths and about 3,700 cases of silica-related illnesses, according to MSHA’s estimates, once fully enforced.

Proposed Safety Regulations

Several regulatory initiatives are underway:

  • MSHA’s Silica Dust Exposure Rule: As mentioned, the final rule sets a stricter limit on respirable crystalline silica exposure (50 µg/m³ over a full shift) plus better respiratory protections for miners. It was finalized but enforcement is delayed due to legal challenges.
  • Rulemaking on Respiratory Protection Standards: MSHA is increasing requirements for respiratory protection when dust levels exceed certain thresholds.
  • Regulations on Miner Lamp Permissibility Underground: One proposed rule (MSHA-2025-11618) would change what lamps are permissible in underground coal mines to improve safety.

Policy Threats & Impacts

  • Delays in rule enforcement (particularly the silica rule) mean continued exposure for miners and more cases of disease and death that might have been prevented.
  • Cuts to oversight bodies, reduced staffing, closure of MSHA regional or local offices could weaken enforcement, inspection frequency, and capacity for health surveillance. Doge has pursued cuts to mine safety by eliminating 34 regional offices of the MSHA in 19 states. 
  • Legal challenges and industry resistance often focus on compliance cost, changes in required equipment, retrofitting existing mines, and managing operational disruptions.

Recommendations: What Must Be Done

To protect coal miners more effectively, here are several high-priority actions:

  1. Fully enforce the new silica rules without further delay. This includes lowering the exposure limit, enforcing respiratory protection, and mandatory medical monitoring.
  2. Expand and fund surveillance and screening programs (e.g., the CWHSP) to detect respiratory disease early, especially in high-risk regions like Central Appalachia. Other considerations include deploying mobile pulmonary screening and specialists for remote mining regions. Clinics in coal states must have training and proper equipment to screen for black lung.
  3. Improve dust control technology: better ventilation, water sprays, equipment modification, real-time dust monitoring.
  4. Strengthen enforcement capacity: ensure MSHA has adequate staffing, regional presence, funding, and oversight to conduct inspections and follow-ups. The MSHA is mandated by law to inspect every underground coal section quarterly and surface mines twice a year. However, with significant budget cuts and plans to close 34 field offices, inspectors would need to travel father which would further delay inspections and weaken oversight. The need is to hire more inspectors and reassign them locally, restore impact inspections, fill MSHA vacancies, reverse hiring freezes, and implement stronger penalties for safety violations.
  5. Support miner health services: access to treatment and compensation for disease (black lung and associated conditions), plus training and education on risks.
  6. Update regulation beyond silica: address diesel exhaust, radon, chemical exposures, asbestos, heat stress and other less-addressed hazards. Approximately 15% of U.S. coal mines contain naturally occurring asbestos, and miners can be exposed through disturbed rock formations and contaminated equipment.
  7. Economic transition support for coal-dependent communities: retraining, investment in alternative employment, infrastructure, compensation where job loss is inevitable, to prevent economic and health harms in coal country.

Conclusion

Coal mining remains a dangerous occupation in 2025—not because science is lacking, but because policy lag, enforcement delays, and economic pressures continue to put miners at risk. Diseases like black lung and pneumoconiosis persist and even worsen, particularly among younger miners and in regions with high dust, silica, and other hazards.

Regulatory improvements, technological adoption, and policy follow-through are essential. The cost of inaction is measured not just in dollars but in human suffering, illness, and death. Strong protections, properly funded institutions, and access to healthcare screenings are more necessary than ever.

Works Cited

Appalachian Regional Commission. Coal Production and Employment in Appalachia, 2023. Appalachian Regional Commission, Sept. 2023, www.arc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Coal-Production-and-Employment-in-Appalachia-2023.pdf.

“Coal Production and Employment.” U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), www.eia.gov/coal/annual/. Accessed 17 Sept. 2025.

Economic Policy Institute. “MSHA Delays Enforcement of Silica Rule for Coal Mines.” Policy Watch, 18 Apr. 2025, www.epi.org/policywatch/msha-delays-enforcement-of-silica-rule-for-coal-mines/.

Federal Register. “Lowering Miners’ Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica and Improving Respiratory Protection.” Federal Register, 18 Apr. 2024, www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/04/18/2024-06920/lowering-miners-exposure-to-respirable-crystalline-silica-and-improving-respiratory-protection.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. “All Employees, Coal Mining (CES1021210001).” FRED Economic Data, Aug. 2025, fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES1021210001.

Investopedia. “How Many People Work in the Coal Industry?” Investopedia, 2019, www.investopedia.com/news/how-many-people-work-coal-industry/.

King University. Coal Industry Employment and Output Trends. King Institute for Regional and Economic Studies, June 2019, www.king.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/kires-report-7.pdf.

Laney, A. Scott, and David N. Weissman. “Respirable Coal Mine Dust and Its Health Impacts.” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, vol. 62, no. 12, Dec. 2020, pp. 993–1001. PubMed Central, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9889769/.

Mitchell, Bill. “They Don’t Care: Advocates for Miners with Black Lung Worry as Silica Dust Rule Delayed Again.” Pennsylvania Capital-Star, 15 Aug. 2025, penncapital-star.com/energy-environment/they-dont-care-advocates-for-miners-with-black-lung-worry-as-silica-dust-rule-delayed-again/.

Murray, James B., et al. “What Is Killing the US Coal Industry?” Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) Policy Brief, 2017, siepr.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/what-killing-us-coal-industry.

Ward, Ken. “Black Lung Is Back, Especially Among Young Miners.” Lexington Herald-Leader, 14 July 2025, www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article288251785.html