Ending black lung disease will be a major push of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration during the tenure of newly appointed Director Joe Main.

MSHA has plans to unveil a comprehensive plan on black lung the first week of December, Main said.

He said the replacement of current dust monitoring devices for miners with newer, continual personal dust monitors will be part of the plan.

Unlike the current monitors, the newer models allow miners to know in real time the quality of the air they are breathing.

They were developed through a partnership between government and stakeholders in the mining industry, Main added.

“This provides miners with instantaneous information on dusts they are in,” he said. “Whatever the standard is for the mine, the miner will know how they are approaching it or exceeding it.”

The device is already being used in a number of mines in the country, he added.

“It’s a device that I think will benefit miners greatly.”

Black lung, or pneumoconiosis, is caused by the prolonged breathing of coal dust, resulting in shortness of breath, obstruction of airways and a severe cough.

Although black lung decreased among miners by about 90 percent since stricter federal laws were passed in 1969, cases of the disease have nearly doubled in the past 10 years.

More than 14,000 miners died from black lung from 1994 to 2004.

Main also plans to heavily examine industry conditions that contribute to accidents that have been identified as the leading causes of death among miners.

“(We’ll) look at the violations connected to those and get a handle on targeting those areas and bring down the numbers of fatalities,” he said.

Another area of strict concentration will be mine emergency preparedness.

“Everyone in the country has witnessed mine emergencies,” he noted. “We’ve all seen we have not been fully prepared.

“There has been a major stride in the last year or so to address that, but I believe we still have gaps to address.”

MSHA has been aggressively meeting new mine emergency response standards set by the Miners Act of 2006 passed by Congress, Main said.

He plans to focus on improving workforce training, too.

Following a 1970s boom in coal mining which drew a new workforce, the industry steadily declined.

The population of miners decreased from 250,000 in the mid-1970s to 100,000 by 2003.

“There was not a lot of apprenticeshipping in the mining industry,” Main said.

“We’re now in the midst of a transition that has the mining industry and the agency having the workforce replaced with much less experience.”

The older workers are going into retirement, he added.

“That’s a challenge for MSHA, and something we’ll be taking a hard look at,” he said.

Main began working in coal mines in 1967 and later became an advocate for miners’ safety as a union safety councilman.

He served in various capacities in the United Mine Workers of America and joined the UMWA Safety Division in 1976.

From 1982 to 2004, he served as administrator of the UMWA Occupational Health and Safety Department and currently works as a self-employed mine safety consultant.

— E-mail: jfarrish@register-herald.com