Miner Safety- Black Lung on the Rise

In the past couple of years, new measurements and regulations have been passed to protect miners. Although this is true, a new frightening trend has immersed. Recent date has shown that rates of black-lung disease are growing- advanced and serious cases are on the rise especially in young miners. As an article in The Wall Street Journal states, this new data is "reversing decades of progress and prompting more federal scrutiny and calls to lower exposure to coal dust." The extraction and transport of coal in mining operations can generate significant amounts of airborne respirable coal dust (cdc.gov). Coal mine dust can cause lung diseases such as coal workers pneumoconiosis (CWP), emphysema, silicosis, and bronchitis—known collectively as black lung (osha.gov). Black lung can lead to lung impairment, permanent disability, and even death. Currently there is no cure for black lung.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) also states "The increase, which federal mine safety officials attributed in part to longer work shifts and companies' uneven dust-mitigation practices, could put a further strain on the industry-financed trust fund set up to compensate disabled miners and their families." The Black Lung Disability Trust has paid out about $44 billion in benefits over the past 40 years to miners totally disabled by black lung or to their widows. "The fund had a deficit of $10 billion in 2007, before a law was passed to eliminate the debt by issuing bonds (WSJ)." The Black Lungh Disability Trust is funded by a tax on coal companies. One reason for the rate increase could be the advancement in production (equipment)leading to the potential to generate larger quantities of respirable coal and silica dust increases (niosh.org). These advancements call for the improvement of control technologies to protect the health of miners. Another contributing factor could be that since most of the easily accessible coal has been mined, workers have to cut through rock, which creates more dust, to access thinner coal seams.

Roughly 9% of workers with 25 years or more in mines tested positive for black lung in 2005-2006, the latest published data, up from about 4% in the late 1990s (WSJ). According to the WSJ article, the rates also doubled for people with 20 to 24 years in mining, including many in their 30s and 40s(date from NIOSH). Surprisingly, black lung accounts for more deaths than do mine accidents, including explosions and cave-ins. Mine accidents have claimed the lives of 400 workers compared to 10,000 minters dying from black lung. During 1900-2006, a total of 11,606 underground coal mine workers died in 513 U.S. underground coal mining disasters (niosh.org).

The Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006 (MINER Act), which amended the Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, was drafted to improve safety, health, preparedness, and emergency response in U.S. mining. The new regulations were sparked by three underground coal mining incidents, that drew national attention, that resulted in the deaths of 19 miners during a 5-month period in 2006. These three accidents also caused the National Mining Associate to create an independent commission of mining and safety experts.

Sources:
To read the full Wall Street Journal article: http://bit.ly/7fzSTY -December 15
osha.gov
niosh.org