Black Lung on Rise in Mines, Reversing Trend

[question everything]

DECEMBER 15, 2009

Black Lung on Rise in Mines, Reversing Trend
Safety Officials Blame Resurgence on Longer Shifts, Handling of Dust; Industry Working on Developing Better Technology, Practices

By KRIS MAHER
WSJ

WASHINGTON, Pa. -- Rates of black-lung disease are growing, most notably among younger miners, reversing decades of progress and prompting more federal scrutiny and calls to lower exposure to coal dust. 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.

Black lung, the common name for coal worker's pneumoconiosis, is caused by inhaling coal dust over a prolonged period. This can lead to fibrosis, destruction of lung tissue and greater risk of emphysema, chronic bronchitis and tuberculosis. The Black Lung Disability Trust, funded by a tax on coal companies, 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. A Labor Department spokesman said the plan to work down the debt is on track and $343 million in bond obligations was retired in September.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has found that 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. The rates also doubled for people with 20 to 24 years in mining, including many in their 30s and 40s, according to NIOSH, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black lung accounts for more deaths than do mine accidents, including explosions and cave-ins. More than 10,000 miners have died from the disease during the past decade, compared with fewer than 400 from mine accidents.

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Today dust levels are measured periodically at mines and then only for eight hours at a time to comply with federal law. MSHA is working on introducing a new type of monitor that could be worn by every miner and provide continuous feedback on dust levels so miners could leave an area if they have reached their daily exposure limit. Some miners worry that more-productive mining machinery may be churning up more dust. "Back in the old days those guys suffered through a lot, but we're generating a lot of coal and there's a lot of dust in the air," said 29-year-old Chuck Knisell, who works at a mine in Waynesburg, Pa. The National Mining Association, an industry trade group, said that while it wasn't challenging the general trend of disease rates, it hasn't seen detailed data that would indicate what jobs were done by miners screened by NIOSH, or what mines were represented in the data.

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Safety officials believe the increase could also reflect longer workshifts in recent years when production was high and miners were in short supply, increasing dust exposure. They also note that much of the easily accessible underground coal has been mined, and companies are increasingly dependent on thinner coal seams. This requires cutting through rock, which creates more dust.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126083871040391327.html (subscription)

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A5

[Zoeisright]

1. More 'benefits' of repuke control.

Kill everybody except rich white men.

[question everything]

3. Looks like we are moving backward in every corner

of the country, with every issue.

[Mari333]

2. do they have health care?

This is the kind of OP I would have seen only during a GOP administration. or so I thought.