At the National Coalition of Black Lung and Respiratory Disease Clinics annual meeting earlier this month the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health announced alarming data that suggests changes brought about by the 1969 Mine Safety and Health Act are not being adopted at all mine sites.

The Act - which includes respirable dust standards deemed low enough to prevent workers from contracting the disease - was thought to see the end of the black lung in the mining industry.

UMWA President Cecil Roberts said the NIOSH data demonstrates a "shocking and disturbing trend that must be investigated and must be reversed."

"Either the respirable dust standard is not being enforced by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, or the standard is still too high. It's likely to be the result of a combination of both factors," Roberts said.

The 1969 Act limited respirable dust exposure to 2 milligrams per cubic foot of air.

The recently released NIOSH data shows that the prevalence of miners with symptoms of black lung bottomed out in 1999, but has since risen for miners with more than 20 years experience working in underground mines.

The level for miners with 25 or more years of underground experience has risen from just under 5 percent to nearly 10 percent, while the level for miners with 20-24 years of experience has risen from about 2 percent to nearly 6 percent.

"At a time when we are seeing increased levels of safety issues in America's coal mines and rising fatalities, now comes this news about increasing prevalence of black lung," Roberts said.

"The UMWA has long and tragic experience with health and safety inadequacies in the nation's coal mines. We know what this means, because we've seen it before."

Roberts has also called on the Government to pass the Supplemental MINER Act, or S-MINER Act that would lower permissible respirable dust standards from the current 2mg per cubic foot of air to 1mg per cubic foot.

"We know that when tough laws are stringently enforced, health and safety gets better," Roberts said.

"When they aren't, we begin to see patterns like we're seeing today. This new data only serves to heighten our concerns about what kind of job MSHA has been and is doing to keep miners safe and healthy on the job."