Following is a statement from Debbie Berkowitz, senior fellow for worker safety and health with the National Employment Law Project and a former senior official with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA):

“Today, in a victory for working people, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals upheld OSHA’s 2016 standard protecting workers from exposure to crystalline silica dust, a workplace hazard that can lead to numerous diseases including incurable silicosis and lung cancer.

“The court rejected all of industry’s challenges to these protections, and in fact directed OSHA to consider strengthening the standard. We applaud the court’s decision, and urge OSHA to strengthen the rule’s medical removal provisions in line with other standards like its recent beryllium rule.”

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