| While Perez focused on the potential lives saved, the National Association of Manufacturers, focused on the potential cost to companies. “Not only does this rule rely on appallingly out-of-date economic data, it also drastically underestimates the exorbitant costs that will be inflicted on manufacturers and the entire economy and requires mandates that simply are not feasible to achieve,” National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons said in a statement. “As a result, small and medium-sized manufacturers could be forced to close their doors while others will be saddled with crushing regulations.” Calling the rule “fundamentally flawed,” he vowed to press Congress to block it, saying it would cost billions to implement. In a call with reporters, Perez told the story of thousands of workers, including many African Americans, who fled the South in the 1930s for a better life and found work on the Hawk’s Nest tunnel project in West Virginia. The workers were ordered to drill through a mountain made of silica. “They thought it would be their ticket to the middle class,” he said. “For all too many it was the ticket to an early death.” Hundreds, perhaps thousands of workers died, Perez said, leading to an outcry and a set of reforms that did not go far enough and “were next to impossible to enforce.” Silica regulations with mandatory, enforceable exposure limits were enacted in 1971, he added, “but the truth is…the 1970s standards were quite literally out of date when the moment they went into effect.” Today’s rule, Perez said, reflects today’s science. Read more: [Report of 10,000 severe workplace injuries might be only half the problem] [Down in the quarry] | 