Tom Ward was 13 when his father came home from what would be his last day of work. Ward's father "barely made it through the door, fell to the floor and, between tears, said, 'I can't do it anymore.'"

Later that year, at age 39, Ward's father suffocated to death--the effect of silicosis. His work as a sandblaster had exposed him to cancer-causing silica dust.

Every year, silica dust takes hundreds of American lives and makes thousands more, mostly construction workers, sick. But it doesn't have to be that way. Two years ago tomorrow, Feb. 14, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) submitted a draft proposed rule to reduce exposure to life-threatening silica dust to the White House's Office of Management and Budget. The review was supposed to take 90 days—but two years later, the draft rule is still there, languishing in regulatory limbo while workers continue to be exposed to the deadly dust.

This is an excerpt of "White House Inaction on Silica Is Deadly for Workers," by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, originally published on The Huffington Post. Read the rest.