Read more in Coal Tattoo.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A federal appeals court has turned down a Kentucky coal miner's effort to force the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration to write tougher limits on coal dust that causes black lung.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Letcher County coal miner Scott Howard. In March 2008, Howard sued MSHA, alleging that the agency's failure to tighten dust limits left him working in unsafe conditions.

Howard argued that, under federal mine safety law, MSHA has a "plain legal duty to promulgate a respirable dust regulation that will eliminate respiratory illnesses caused by work in coal mines."

But a panel of 6th Circuit judges ruled that Howard could not successfully bring the lawsuit because he had not yet petitioned MSHA directly to write the regulations.

The Obama administration has said it is considering new rules on coal dust limits, but does not expect to publish a proposed rule until April 2011.

Howard filed suit against MSHA following a series of media reports and scientific findings that black lung, after years on the decline, is increasing among miners in the Appalachian coalfields.

Black lung, or coal workers' pneumoconiosis, is a debilitating and often fatal disease caused by breathing coal dust.

In 1969, Congress placed strict limits on airborne dust and ordered coal operators to take periodic tests inside mines. The law has reduced black lung in the nation's mines. But, at least partly because of industry cheating on dust samples, the law has fallen far short of its goal of eliminating the disease.

Between 1993 and 2002, nearly 2,300 West Virginia miners died of black lung. West Virginia recorded the highest age-adjusted black lung death rate nationwide during that period, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

The 1969 federal law set a limit of 2 milligrams of coal dust per cubic meter of air in underground mines. Under the law, MSHA was set to update this standard to a level "which will prevent new incidences of respiratory disease and the future development of such disease in any person."

For more than a decade, NIOSH has recommended that the standard be tightened to 1 milligram per cubic meter. In October 1996, a Labor Department advisory committee recommended that same tougher limit.

In April 1999, the Clinton administration announced plans to tighten the limit. The rule was not completed before the Bush administration took office, and in December 2002, then-MSHA chief Dave Lauriski dropped the proposal from the agency's regulatory agenda.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.

Read more in Coal Tattoo.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A federal appeals court has turned down a Kentucky coal miner's effort to force the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration to write tougher limits on coal dust that causes black lung.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Letcher County coal miner Scott Howard. In March 2008, Howard sued MSHA, alleging that the agency's failure to tighten dust limits left him working in unsafe conditions.

Howard argued that, under federal mine safety law, MSHA has a "plain legal duty to promulgate a respirable dust regulation that will eliminate respiratory illnesses caused by work in coal mines."

But a panel of 6th Circuit judges ruled that Howard could not successfully bring the lawsuit because he had not yet petitioned MSHA directly to write the regulations.

The Obama administration has said it is considering new rules on coal dust limits, but does not expect to publish a proposed rule until April 2011.

Howard filed suit against MSHA following a series of media reports and scientific findings that black lung, after years on the decline, is increasing among miners in the Appalachian coalfields.

Black lung, or coal workers' pneumoconiosis, is a debilitating and often fatal disease caused by breathing coal dust.

In 1969, Congress placed strict limits on airborne dust and ordered coal operators to take periodic tests inside mines. The law has reduced black lung in the nation's mines. But, at least partly because of industry cheating on dust samples, the law has fallen far short of its goal of eliminating the disease.

Between 1993 and 2002, nearly 2,300 West Virginia miners died of black lung. West Virginia recorded the highest age-adjusted black lung death rate nationwide during that period, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

The 1969 federal law set a limit of 2 milligrams of coal dust per cubic meter of air in underground mines. Under the law, MSHA was set to update this standard to a level "which will prevent new incidences of respiratory disease and the future development of such disease in any person."

For more than a decade, NIOSH has recommended that the standard be tightened to 1 milligram per cubic meter. In October 1996, a Labor Department advisory committee recommended that same tougher limit.

In April 1999, the Clinton administration announced plans to tighten the limit. The rule was not completed before the Bush administration took office, and in December 2002, then-MSHA chief Dave Lauriski dropped the proposal from the agency's regulatory agenda.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.