It Could Happen Here - The Dangers of Silica ft. Kim Kelly

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

Labor journalist and author, Kim Kelly discusses silica and why it is so dangerous in the workplace.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. If your bookshelf and your for-you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed.

I'm obsessed. Listen to pro society on the show. the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. I'm Nick Totoro. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, The Longest Yard, or Spike Lee's Black Klansman. And on my new podcast, delivering happiness with Nick Totoro, I deliver pizza to a new guest. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins. What are you doing? My belt. To Bill Burr.

I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now, we even have more great guests. coming up, including the great John Tuturo. It's called Happiness, delivering happiness, and many, many more. Open your free High Heart Radio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Tutorough. And listen now. I'm Hoda Kotbby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you.

Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, and welcome to It Could Happen here. My name's Kim Kelly, and I'll be your host for this morning or evening or afternoon. I don't know your schedule. A little about me. I'm a freelance journalist based in Philly, a Thursday, a Thursday, Generation Union member, an author of the books, Fight Like Hell, the Untold History of American Labor, and its Young Reader's edition, Fight to Win, Heroes of American Labor. Labor history is obviously a passion of mine, but it's also my job to keep up with current worker struggles here in the U.S. and abroad. Our pal Sophie, Robert, James, everybody else, have kindly given me the opportunity here to share some recent labor stories you might have missed, and add in a little

historical context here and there to explain why exactly they're so important. All that being said, let's talk about silica. There are a lot of things out there that can kill you at work, but silica, specifically, respirable crystalline silica really goes above and beyond the call of duty. What is silica, you might ask? Well, it's a chemical compound made up of silicon and oxygen that is extremely common. Its government name is silicon dioxide, and it's actually the second most abundant element on earth after oxygen. Doesn't sound so bad, right? Well, it all comes down to how you encounter it. If you eat it in the form of dietary silica, that's fine. You can find it in leafy greens, oats, brown rice, is actually pretty good for you. But, and this is a big, but,

if you breathe in silica dust, you're pretty much fucked. See, silica dust. See, silica dust, is extremely harmful, toxic, dangerous, no good. If it gets into your lungs, it causes swelling and inflammation, which then turns into hard scar tissue, which makes it really hard to breathe and leads to even bigger problems like lung cancer, tuberculosis, silicosis, C-O-P-D, kidney disease, and one of the scariest occupational diseases in American history, coal workers' pneumoconiosis, which you might know better as black lung. See, silica is 10 times more toxic than coal dust and has been fueling a quiet epidemic in the Appalachian coal fields for years now. A new report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reveals that black lung rates are higher than they've been in 50 years.

A disease that most people assume has been eradicated has come roaring back, and now one in three miners, with 25 or more years experience in the mines, has this brutal fatal fatal. incurable disease. There's no longer an old man's disease either. Let's do the math real quick. So if a worker goes underground when they're 18, 19, you know, right at a high school, get their first big job, go down the mines, 25 years later, they barely hit their 40s. These are not old dudes. This is not the end of the line, like the stereotype of the elderly coal miner with the oxygen tank. These are people in their late 20s. They're 30s. They're 30s. They're 40s. It's horrifying. These workers have so much more life to live, but their futures are being stolen from them by silica. And more specifically, the mine operators who refuse to follow the proper safety protocols and engineering controls needed to protect them. And the Trump administration's refusal to do dilly squat to make them. Actually, this administration is actively making the problem worse. You see, after decades of work from coal miners and their allies, the Department of Labor, under Biden, was poised to enact a new silica rule that would have the amount of deadly dust that minors would be exposed to.

Finally, it took decades to get to this point. And this rule was supposed to go into effect in April 2025. But guess who was president then? For all Trump's squawking about beautiful clean coal and American workers and blah, blah, blah, he and the scrubs who work for him are actively killing coal miners to protect their coal barren buddies bottom line. And silica isn't just wreaking havoc in Appalachia and his coal mines. It's a huge problem in the construction industry too, specifically among stone masons and countertop fabricators. See, silica isn't just floating around like loosey-goosey.

It's not like you're not going to breathe it in walking down the street. You got to dig it out of rocks like granite, marble, quartz. Coal miners dig it out of the earth. For stone masons and countertop fabricators, they release the dust when they're cutting and finishing slabs of stone. artificial stone, aka manufacture quartz, isn't especially popular material for, you know, that kitchen makeover that is chock full of silica. That's right, your shining new kitchen counter might have killed someone already. Sorry.

California is currently grappling with a silicosis epidemic that is sickened over 500 workers. 50 them are needed lung transplants, and as of today, 32 of them have died. These are not old men either. Their median age is 46, and almost every case in California has occurred among Mexican and Central American immigrant workers, many of whom have died within a few years of their diagnosis. It is a fucking nightmare, and like Black Lung in Appalachia, it is completely preventable when workers' health and safety is taken into account and existing regulations are followed. When they aren't, people die. regulations are there for a reason. Like, it's not just for funsies.

Like, it matters. Man, it makes me so mad. But with all that in mind, let's wrap up this silica-sponsored portion of our program with a little sweet treat from Starbucks. The coffee giant has gone all in on blended and frozen drinks. You've seen them on Instagram and TikTok. They're very pretty.

They look very radioactive in like a fun way. And they've recently started using a new blending powder that contains, wait for it, silicon dioxide, our old friend. Now, this silica is food grade FDA-approved and it's safe to ingest. Cavi, caveat, caveat. The trouble is that the workers who are required to use this blending powder in the drinks they're making for you are being exposed to it

as they mix up these little treats. That's not good. Members of the Starbucks Workers United Union have raised the alarm over this and collected testimonies from hundreds of Starbucks workers, who started to suffer adverse health effects as soon as the new blending powders showed up in their stores. As one worker explained on the union's Instagram, you inhale those powders every time you scoop them. Workers report experiencing rashes, headaches, coughing fits, nausea, throat irritation, swelling. They had trouble breathing.

And as one of them said, this powder is literally unavoidable. Now, given what we've learned about silica today, you might be feeling a little nervous for the Starbucks workers. Some of those symptoms might sound a little familiar. That sounds good. We don't like silica in things. We don't want silica in anybody's lungs. And you think that after said workers alerted their company to this issue, Starbucks management would have swiftly removed this potentially dangerous substance from their stores and stopped requiring their employees to handle it. But as of now, anyway, you'd be wrong. So far, their response has been to blog about it. Here's the interesting.

entirety of the response, Starbucks posted on their official website. And I quote, The product used in our coffee houses is a blending powder, which contains a small amount of food-grade silica, an FDA-approved ingredient commonly used in food products that helps ingredients mix consistently and supports a consistent beverage experience. It does not contain crystalline silica and is safe for use in food. We are committed to providing accurate information about our ingredients.

to learn more about our commitment to high-quality food and drinks, visit this link. End quote. So, okay, that's not the problem, though. We know it's food safe. We know it's fine once you get in your guts. It's the lungs we're worried about. We know it's food safe. The issue is that it's not worker safe.

In a message the company sent out to its stores, it avoided the potential health issue entirely, and instead simply told the workers to, pour slower when handling it, putting the burden on them to protect their health instead of actually doing something about it. Classic case. You hate to see it. And for now, Starbucks Workers United are continuing to push the company to address the actual issue here. And I bet they'd appreciate your support. So keep an eye out on their social media accounts to follow this story. Let them know I sent you. And now a word from our sponsors.

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daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to pro society on the Iheart radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. When I was four years, when I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the survivor files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up. Without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed,

and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements.

We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stillard. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of, uh, technology. Danny McBride.

He loves Mousand. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobieski. Yeah, I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that.

Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Yeah. Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game? I just really, I get it. I'm trying to set you up for success here.

Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And now for some good news. Deborah Kapesha, a medical surgical nurse at Maine Medical Center in Portland, is back home after a terrifying encounter with ICE. According to her union, the Maine State Nurses Association slash National Nurses Organizing Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United, Capescia was detained on July 30th while traveling through Boston Logan International Airport. The union and her fellow nurses at Maine Med immediately organized a rally that saw hundreds of nurses and allies mobilize and successfully blocked her transfer to a facility in Louisiana. Quote, we knew we had to take action, first to stop her from her from her. being transferred out of New England while in custody, but also to demand her release. We're

incredibly proud that nurses and the community came together in Portland to advocate for her, and now we need to figure out how to stop ICE. That's a quote from Kelly Brennan, a registered nurse at Maine Med and a nurse leader with the union. Got done a press release. So Capesha was born in Zambia, and she's legally authorized to live and work in the United States. She's waiting for asylum case to be processed. There's no reason for ICE. to snatch her up, bother her, any of that. Her fellow nurses have written more than 100 letters of support, while the union continues to coordinate with her attorneys, and her co-workers that made med are demanding their employer sponsor her permanent residency. She has a bond hearing on

August 10th, and I know we're all crossing fingers for her. You know, I don't know if this is common knowledge, but nurses unions, especially National Nurses United, go ridiculously hard for their members and their communities. Like, they are so tough. NNU has been on ICE's neck, calling it a illegitimate, violent, paramilitary organization that must be abolished. They've been publicly mourning the ICE murder of Lorenzo, Salgado, Arajo, and condemning the persecution of anti-ice activists in Minnesota and Texas. The union has been extremely outspoken on other human rights issues, too, that many other big unions have ignored or barely acknowledged because they're politically sensitive. not really if you have a heart and a brain. They've been calling out Israel for destroying medical warehouses and hospitals in Gaza,

killing thousands of health care workers in Palestinian patients, and they just demanded an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba. This was just the last couple of months of press releases. Like, they've been out here. And NU is also the biggest nurses union in the country, with more than 225,000 members. They have a lot of power, and they're not afraid to use it for good. Today they're trying to free a member from ISIS clutches.

Tomorrow they may be striking for safeing staffing levels or organizing a new union in Louisiana or holding your grandma's hand as she takes her last breath. Nurses really are the best of us and I'm really glad they're on our side. So everyone say good luck to Deborah. Finally, I want to end today's episode with some very big news. As I'm sure you all know, it's now Black August, the month we dedicate each year to honoring the memory of fallen black freedom fighters and political prisoners.

It's a tradition that began in 1979, after the assassination of George Jackson, a Black Panther and Black Liberation activist. With that memory in mind, jailhouse lawyers speak, a collective of formerly and currently incarcerated workers around the country, have just gone public with their plans for a big nationwide prison strike in 2027, and they're calling for allies and comrades to support and spread the word. On August 2nd, they announced that prisoners will hold a national prisoners' human rights strike from May 1st, International Workers' Day, through June 19th, June 10th, 2027, uniting the fight to end legalize slavery with the struggle to restore voting rights to the prison class. They share three core demands, which I'll read to you now.

They also maintain 10 national demands on their own. website. They have a bigger program going on, but this specific campaign is focusing on these three things. One, and legalized slavery. Repeal the exception clause of the 13th Amendment. Two, restore voting rights. Repeal exception clauses, including Section 2 of the 14th Amendment, that strip voting rights from confined citizens, pre-trial detainees, and former felons. Three, free all the political prisoners in U.S. prisons. So they've got a lot of work ahead of them. It all sounds very reasonable to me, but unfortunately I'm not in charge.

You know, this isn't the first time that JLS and their affiliated prisoner-led organizations have raised these demands, nor is it the first time they've put their bodies on the line for them. There was a long, long history of resistance behind the walls of the American prison industrial complex. I devoted a whole chapter to it in my book. And groups like JLS, the Free Alabama Movement, and the incarcerated workers organizing committee have done an incredible amount of work over the years, keeping the spirit of hope and rebellion alive and organizing these huge nationwide actions under nearly impossible circumstances. Just because you haven't heard about them doesn't mean they're not happening. There is so much organizing happening inside prison in the U.S. It's just, you know, difficult to report on unless you have contacts and you care enough to do a little bit of a day.

digging, which I guess not that many mainstream reporters do, but fuck them. Now, the largest prison strike in modern U.S. history is said to have been the 2010 Georgia prison strike, wherein prisoners in seven facilities across the state went on strike for six days. Between 2011 and 2013, thousands of prisoners in California went on hunger strikes to protest the dire conditions in which they were held. Since then, we've seen large-scale, coordinated prison labor strikes in 2017, 2018, and perhaps most notably, 2016, which commemorated the 45th anniversary of the Attica Prison Uprising, which itself bears a historical precedent to ancient Rome, when in about 135 BC, just after the first survival war,

a thousand slaves lit a bloody revolt in Attica, a region of what is now Greece. There really is nothing new under the sun, at least when it comes to the carcoral system, and human enslavement. And the 27 prison strike makes that connection explicit with its slogan. From May Day to Juneteenth, we refuse to slave. Now, a prison strike may look a little different from what you're thinking. Strikers have to get very creative, since they can't exactly walk out of their workplace. There won't be any picket lines or cool matching t-shirts, and I'd be very pleasantly surprised

if any elected officials or political hopefuls showed up to support these strikes. I mean, it sure would be nice, given that one of the major goals of this action is to have these incarcerated workers voting rights restored. People in prison are a part of our society and always have been. Ripping away their rights as well as their freedoms is a crime against their humanity. And this strike is another desperate cry for help from people who have been left behind and forgotten. A lot can happen in nine months, and a lot needs to happen to pull off an action of this magnitude. prison strikes aren't easy. There's so many dangers and risks for the people that participate, so much repression, so many repercussions. It's truly an incredibly difficult and brave thing

to take part in a strike behind the walls. And they need support from people outside, too. JLS is calling on supporters of the strike to get involved and support their resistance inside by sharing the strike statement widely, centering prisoner voices, and pressure in Congress and all those other fancy, powerful people to heed their demands, or at the absolute least, show that they're listening. As JLS stated, the National Prisoner's Human Rights Strike is more than a strike. It is a commitment to building lasting institutions, expanding legal knowledge, strengthening political education, and organizing inside and outside the walls until legalized slavery and the broader system of exploitation are abolished. So if you've got some time, you got some skills,

and desire to burn down the American plantation, give a little whistle. JLS is waiting for you, and they need all the help they can get. This has been a special labor episode of It Can Happen Here. I'm still Kim Kelly, and it's been lovely talking with you. Until next time, be good, do no harm, and take no shit. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media.

For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the online. I heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for it could happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. If your bookshelf and your for-you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks

Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture. with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked,

controlled and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Tutorough. You probably know me from NYPD Blue,

the longest yard, or Spike Lee's Black Klansman. And on my new podcast, delivering happiness with Nick Tatoural, I deliver pizza to a new guest. I've shared a slice with everyone, from Seth Rollins. What are you doing my belt?

To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Tuturo. It's called Happiness, Delivering Happiness. And many, many more. Open your free High Heart Radio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Totoro. And listen now.

I'm Hoda Kotmi, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotin. You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.