Deadly Black Lung Makes a Comeback Among Coal Miners

[A Little Weird]

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For two decades, the prevalence of black lung dropped continuously — from 6.5 percent in the 1970s, to 2.5 percent in the 1980s and 2.1 percent in the 1990s. But then the trend reversed, with rates climbing to 3.2 percent in the 2000s.

No one knows for sure exactly what is causing black lung’s resurgence. But it’s likely that, with the thicker coal seams mined out in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, operators are going after thinner seams with faster-moving machines that churn out more dust from silica-laced rock that surrounds the coal.

These trends coincide with an ongoing contraction of the Central Appalachian region’s coal industry, which is facing heavy competition from low-cost natural gas and other mining basins in Wyoming and Illinois. Since 2011, West Virginia alone has lost 4,000 coal-mining jobs, dropping the number of working miners to less than 20,000. Last year, Kentucky reported a little more than 12,000 coal jobs, the lowest number since state officials started counting in 1927. Such challenging conditions, health and safety experts say, raise the risk of industry cutting corners on black lung protection.


http://www.alternet.org/environment/black-lung-makes-brutal-comeback-among-coal-miners

I'm sad but not terribly surprised to hear that black lung is on the rise again. The trend seems to be de-regulating everything coal-related whether it's rolling back environmental laws or worker protection.

[theHandpuppet]

1. I suspect things will only get much worse now

One of the stated goals of the Congressional Republicans is to neuter the EPA.

[greatlaurel]

2. Just to make a clarification, USEPA does not regulate worker safety in mines, MSHA does.

Last edited Sat Nov 15, 2014, 01:11 AM - Edit history (1)

Mine Safety and Health Administration gets very little attention and even less funding. It was a little gem of a regulatory agency with real teeth and the experts to back them up when it was created back in 1978. Another one of the wonderful things Jimmy Carter did as president. This agency saved thousands of lives. I do not have any data, but I would imagine the budget for MSHA has taken a terrible beating since the 2000 election. This would be one of those agencies that does absolutely vital work for the protection of mine workers, but has no politician on their side to help them get any funding.

I'll bet that the increase in black lung can be correlated the slashing of their budget, the reductions in inspections and the lack of inspectors for MSHA.

This agency is hated and feared by the mining industry. They have worked every day since its inception to get rid of it. Unfortunately, the people who benefit from the regulations, believe the propaganda from their employers and vote in politicians who work to harm their lives through deregulation.

The black lung issue resurfaced a while back and little was being done politically to help these workers or the agency charged with saving their health and lives. Edit to say that little was done on the resurgence of black lung until the 2009 campaign to end black lung was begun and which was fought tooth and nail by the mine owners.

Here is the link to their home page: http://www.msha.gov/
Here is the link to the NIOSH proposed standard from clear back in 1995. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/95-106/

Here is a link to MSHA's campaign to end black lung page. The campaign started in 2009 (Thanks, Obama). The new respiratory protection rule became effective August 1, 2014.



Never forget that the GOP cares nothing for the health and lives of any worker.

[theHandpuppet]

4. Thanks very much for this post!

I love learning all I can about these topics. While I've got your ear, do you know why OSHA wouldn't regulate mine safety? Are OSHA and MSHA independent of one another?

[greatlaurel]

5. The two agencies were created under different laws, but are in the Department of Labor.

OSHA was created in 1971. It has been greatly hindered by being understaffed and underfunded since its inception.

Also from Wikipedia "The following are exempted from OSHA regulations:
Mine and quarry workers (regulated by the Mine Safety and Health Administration)
Independent contractors and other self-employed individuals[8]
Public sector employees (covered only in jurisdictions with state plans; the United States Postal Service is covered under the Postal Employees Safety Enhancement Act)[9]
Domestic workers (workers whose workplace is a household)[10]
Flight crews (covered by the Federal Aviation Administration)[11]
Farms employing only family members and farms employing fewer than 10 employees with no migrant labor housing[12]

Additionally, workplaces participating in OSHA's Voluntary Protection Programs are exempted from programmatic inspections, though they can still be subject to accident-, complaint-, or referral-initiated inspections.[13]"

OSHA is another one of those agencies that gets screamed about by the right wing, but really leaves an awful lot of people unprotected. With the political failure of politicians to actually care about worker safety, we end up with the situation we are in today. According to the AFL-CIO "In 2012, 4,628 workers were killed on the job in the United States, and an estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases, resulting in a loss of 150 workers each day from hazardous working conditions. Over the past four years, the job fatality rate has largely been unchanged with a rate of 3.4 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2012."

While there had been attempts to regulate mine safety going back to the 1890's, MSHA was created by the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Mine Act) and given some real enforcement authority. But the mine owners have prevented or illegally ignored mine health and safety regulations. We can only hope that Don Blankenship ends up with prison time. Speaking as a former regulator, nothing gets the attention of these business owners, like sending one of them to jail for something everyone knows they all do. It straightens them all up in big hurry. If the Obama administration can send that guy to prison, which he rightly deserves, we will see mine safety improve really fast and miners can stop dying untimely deaths and dealing with crippling diseases like black lung.

[A Little Weird]

6. They have done a good job of neutering most of the watchdog agencies

MSHA, OSHA, FDA, EPA (and probably others) - they have successfully demonized them to the public and cut their funding. Then they can often get cronies appointed to the top spots and as a result they have managed to weaken these agencies to the point where they barely function. It's maddening!

[greatlaurel]

3. Thanks for the post! This is important information.

Great post!

[blueinredohio]

7. My father died from black lung, a horrible disease that's awful to watch someone suffer through