Mining
sb admin | February 21, 2008There are a number of memorable quotes in the Center for Study of Responsive Law's newly released report "Undermining Safety: A Report on Coal Mine Safety."  In one section, report author Christopher W. Shaw discusses the mining industry's lobbying for "targeted inspections" (a la the OSHA model) instead of the current requirement for mandatory quarterly inspections. The AFL-CIO's secretary-treasurer Richard L. Trumka---a former coal miner---derided the notion of making MSHA more like OSHA:
"OSHA reminds me of an 18-year old Mexican Chihauhua dog that's lost its teeth and hides…
sb admin | February 5, 2008A group of advocates for miners and their families sent a rulemaking petition to MSHA on February 1, asking the agency to improve its regulations governing the training that mine workers receive about their statutory rights. The Petition for Rulemaking was submitted by the West Virginia Mine Safety Project, the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center, United Support & Memorial for Workplace Fatalities, and the United Mine Workers, and calls for significant improvements in the content and manner in which all U.S. mine workers---whether at coal, gold, stone, or other mine or mill---learn…
sb admin | February 4, 2008Two high-tech communication firms, Venture Design Services, Inc and Helicomm, Inc., teamed up to create a wireless tracking system for underground miners, and it is the first product of its kind to be approved by MSHA since the Sago, WV disaster. That 2006 event, which claimed the lives of 12 coal miners and forever changed the lives of their families, coworkers and community, was the impetus for the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act (MINER Act) and its requirements for wireless tracking systems.
Helicomm has been using the CONSOL Energy's Big Branch mine in Mingo County, WV…
sb admin | January 24, 2008A group of state legislators in West Virginia introduced a bill to strengthen the State's laws to protect mine workers who raise concerns about unsafe working conditions. The lead sponsor is Delegate Bill Hamilton (R) who represents the region where the now-abandoned Sago mine is located.* He's been a strong champion for mine safety improvements and also known for reprimanding Massey Energy's Don Blankenship when the CEO asserted that mining disasters, like Sago and Aracoma Alma, were rare and insignificant.  Mine-worker advocates, like Nathan Fetty at the WV Mine Safety Project…
sb admin | January 17, 2008Howard A. Heit, MD and a pain management specialist at Georgetown University offers an informed perspective on "painkiller abuse" among coal miners, in response to the Washington Post's article "A Dark Addiction."Â He writes:
"I don't believe the majority of these miners have the disease of addiction....[instead they] are seeking medications appropriately or inappropriately as a result of significant undertreatment of pain."
Dr. Heit's letter to the editor reads:
 "'A Dark Addicition' [front page, Jan 13] documented the experience of miners in western Virginia who work under conditions…
sb admin | January 16, 2008The U.S. House of Representatives debated today the Supplemental Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act (S-MINER, H.R. 2768) which would require, among other things, closer review of retreat mining plans, allow independent investigations (outside of MSHA) for multiple fatalities, and update permissible exposure limits. The White House issued a veto threat, saying the bill would "place in jeopardy meaningful achievements and efforts currently underway"..."weaken several existing regulations" and "impose burdensome and unrealistic time requirements." Likewise, the National Mining…
sb admin | January 14, 2008The front page of Sunday's Washington Post (Jan. 13) featured the blackened face of coal miner Forest Ramey, 24, but the story was not about a deadly explosion or workers trapped underground. A Dark Addiction, by the Post's Nick Miroff, gives us a peak into the lives of coal miners who are struggling with painkiller abuse.
"Tazewell County, Va. The crowd is gathering early in the dirt parking lot outside the Clinch Valley Treatment Center, the only methadone clinic within 80 miles. ...It is 2:45 am...the clinic does not start dosing until 5 am. ...Many of the patients who fill…
sb admin | January 9, 2008Several months ago, I tried to get a simple question answered by NIOSH about part of its process for awarding mine safety research grants. The technical staff with whom I spoke probably knew the answer to my question, but they weren't sure whether the information could be disclosed or not. Fair enough. They suggested that I file a FOIA request which I promptly did.  More than 4 months later, I'm still waiting for an answer.Â
Granted, this is nowhere near the worst FOIA performance (see annual Rosemary Award), but my question to NIOSH was straightforward, and I guarantee they have at…
sb admin | January 4, 2008I guess President Bush and Secretary Chao are stickin' with Richard Stickler afterall. A personnel announcement this afternoon from the White House says:
"The President intends to designate Richard Stickler, of West Virginia, to be Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health."
Note the use of the word "designate" not "nominate." And now the webpage featuring Mr. Stickler's photo is back up on MSHA's website. My previous posts on this are here, here, and here. Oy!
sb admin | January 4, 2008Yesterday afternoon, if you happened to MSHA's website and click on the Asst. Secretary's button, you'd see this, with the ominous caption:
"The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable."
That was a tell-tale sign that Richard Stickler's recess-appointment tenure as MSHA's chief has come to an end. Ken Ward of The Charleston Gazette reports today in "Stickler out at MSHA" that a political appointee named John Pallasch is now the acting Assistant Secretary for MSHA.
Ward reports:
"...on Thursday, MSHA officials revealed that…
sb admin | January 3, 2008A coal mine operator in Hazard, Kentucky received a $220,000 penalty from MSHA for flagrantly violating electrical lockout/tagout procedures (such as padlocking an on/off switch to ensure that a machine is not unexpectedly turned-on, plugged in or energized while it is being serviced.)  The hefty monetary penalty was authorized under the 2006 MINER Act for flagrant violations, defined as:
"a reckless or repeated failure to make reasonable efforts to eliminate a known violation of a mandatory safety and health standard that substantially and proximately caused, or reasonably could have…
sb admin | December 17, 2007Every few months like clockwork, news stories have been appearing to report a rise in incidence rates for coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP).  The format goes something like this:Â
Headline: Black lung on the rise!
Lead: NIOSH reports sharp increase in black lung cases
Body: How can this be? It's so perplexing.
You'd think they're talking about a never-seen-before viral disease. Instead, it's all about CWP, a disease that is 100% preventable, yet it's being treated as if it is a mystery that can't be solved.Â
This time, the story appeared in the Beckley, WV Register-…
sb admin | December 14, 2007As the year is winding down, one question on the minds of many MSHA inspectors, managers and staff has to be: Will Stickler be here in 2008? The MSHA chief, Richard Stickler, received his job from President G.W. Bush on a "recess appointment," which expires at the end of the current U.S. Senate session. If the Senate adjourns (as it usually does) for the Christmas and New Year holidays, Mr. Stickler's appointment would officially end. This would leave MSHA without a politically-appointed Assistant Secretary. Would that be a good thing for miners' health and safety?
I can't…
sb admin | December 10, 2007The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act (H.R. 2262) would revamp the 1872 federal law governing hardrock mining (mining for metals and gems, not for coal), and a new article from Business Week reports that the Act has the support of many local officials who worry about miningâs effects on air, water, and tourism.
Industry officials donât like the House bill â which isn't surprising, because theyâve been getting such a sweet deal for more than a century. The General Mining Law of 1872 was intended to create incentives for settling the West, and it let miners take minerals from public lands…
sb admin | December 6, 2007The New York Times' headline read:
350 Men Entombed in Mine Explosion. Rescue Force at Work in the Debris of Two Shattered Mines at Monongah, West Va. Poisonous Gas Pours Out.
At about 10:00 am on Dec 6, 1907, a violent explosion of methane gas and coal dust killed hundreds of workers at two adjacent underground coal mines owned by Consolidated Coal Company. The official death toll is listed at 362, but in Davitt McAteer's new book Monongah, his research suggests the disaster claimed the lives of more than 550 men and boys.
In the days following the disaster, the New York Times…
sb admin | December 4, 2007It's been nearly four months since nine men were killed at the Crandall Canyon mine in Emery County, Utah. Congressman George Miller (D-CA) held a hearing in early October on the disaster, but a Senate hearing, scheduled for Dec 4, for which the mine operator Robert Murray had been subpeonaed, was cancelled. The Salt Lake Tribune's Mike Gorrell and Robert Gherke reported recently on photographs taken inside the mine:
"If there was any question about the power of a mine bounce--created when the immense pressures on the coal pillars supporting the roof cause coal to blow out of the walls…
lborkowski | November 30, 2007It's that time of year---time for the Secretary of Labor to issue her semi-annual regulatory agenda.  Look for its publication in the Federal Register around the second week of December.
I'll be curious to see OSHA's timetable for action on diacetyl, the butter-flavoring agent associated with severe lung disease in exposed workers.
Will OSHA list diacetyl on its reg agenda?
Will it provide a target date for publishing a proposed rule?
   I'll also be eager to see OSHA's latest schedule for proposed rules to address:
Hearing conservation for construction workers (who are not…
sb admin | November 27, 2007The chairman of the University of Kentucky's (UK) mining engineering department wrote in a recent op-ed of his strong oppposition to a new mine safety bill (HR 2768) which is making its way through Congress. The legislation will address long-standing health and safety hazards faced by miners such as disease-causing coal dust and silica, belt-air ventilation, flammable conveyor belts, among other things. In "New Mining Bill Premature," printed in the Lexington Herald-Leader, Professor Rick Honaker says it is "incomprehensible" that Congress is attempting to place new safety…
sb admin | November 21, 2007The Mine Safety and Health Administration has been in the news again lately. The Labor Departmentâs Inspector General released a report stating that the agency failed to conduct required inspections at more than one in seven of U.S. underground coal mines last year (budget constraints and a lack of management emphasis on worker safety by the Bush administration get the blame). In a separate audit, the IG also found that the U.S. Department of Laborâs procedures for counting mining deaths are inconsistent and donât follow the agencyâs own written rules.
Charles Thomas, a 16-year veteran of…
sb admin | November 21, 2007While families in eastern Ukraine are mourning the death of 90 coal miners from the Zasaidko coal mine, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said:
"This accident has proven once again that a human is powerless before nature."
This disaster was no accident. This was no unpredictable force of nature.  It was a massive methane explosion that could have--should have--been prevented. Shame on Yanukovych for suggesting the Ukrainian coal industry is powerless to stop them.Â
Underground coal mining and methane go hand-in-hand. Prime Minister Yanukovych may not know this, but miners …