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C.L. Garvin
Feds unveil 3-pronged plan to curb black lung
Federal officials unveiled a three-pronged strategy to combat black lung disease during a meeting Thursday at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beaver.
Mining officials and medical experts say education, stricter enforcement and new regulations can curb the disease, which has been on the rise in the region and has killed some 10,000 miners in the last decade.
Thursday’s meeting was the first of four informational sessions planned by Mine Safety and Health Administration.
“There is a collective agreement that we have to fix this problem,” MSHA Director Joseph Main told a packed room that included representatives from mining companies, the United Mine Workers of America and former miners suffering from the ailment.
Black lung is a collection of debilitating and potentially fatal diseases from respirable coal mine dust exposure.
Based on recent data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, cases of black lung are on the rise, and even young miners are showing evidence of advanced and debilitating lung disease from excessive dust exposure. Experts have been at a loss to explain why.
Gary Hairston had to retire from mining at 48 after developing the illness.
“My wind is getting shorter and shorter, and before it’s over with I probably will be on oxygen,” he said. “The things I love to do with my family I can’t do no more, just because I never did think about dust hurting me.”
The federal government has spent more than $44 billion in compensation for miners disabled by black lung since 1970.
The plan unveiled Thursday aims to address information gaps about black lung by educating miners, mine operators and mine inspectors about the ailment, Main said.
A weeklong project called the Dust Sweep will be rolled out in mines across the country, making sure required dust control measures are in place and providing the latest information on black lung.
The second part of the strategy will come in stricter enforcement of existing regulations, Main said, with mine inspectors looking for dust control shortcomings.
“We want these problems fixed,” he said.
The final component, which involves new federal regulation, is the haziest part of the plan. Main said he couldn’t go into too many details, citing advice from agency lawyers.
MSHA says it’s working on the approval of a new technology — continuous personal dust monitors.
If approved, miners would wear the monitor on their hip to measure exposure to dust levels during their work shift.
The dust monitors carry a price tag of about $10,000 apiece.
UMW President Cecil Roberts told the crowd of several hundred that black lung was “the nation’s problem.”
Roberts added that mining laws need to be updated. Miners are spending longer hours underground, which equals an increase in coal dust exposure.
“Either the law isn’t stringent enough or it isn’t being enforced,” he said.
“The nation should band together in this coalition that’s in this room today and end this terrible disease once and for all. ... These miners gave their health, gave their life, to energize this nation so this nation could prosper.”
MSHA will hold additional meetings meeting Dec. 7 in Washington, Pa., Dec. 10 in Lebanon, Va., and on Dec. 11 in Frankfort, Ky.
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