Opinion
Fight against exposure to excessive coal dust is essential
In less than a month, federal regulators will conduct a hearing to discuss their plans to revise existing safety requirements regarding miners’ exposure to coal dust.
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have scheduled a public hearing on the proposed rule to revise existing requirements to approve sampling devices that monitor miners’ exposure to respirable coal mine dust.
According to MSHA’s Web site, the proposal would establish criteria for the approval of a new type of technology, the “continuous personal dust monitor,” which would be worn by miners and report exposure to dust levels continuously during their shifts. In addition, the proposal would update application requirements for existing “coal mine dust personal sampler units” to reflect improvements in the sampler over the past 15 years.
Currently, mine operators are required to conduct respirable dust monitoring by collecting valid samples that represent normal work activities every other month and posting the results for at least 31 days.
The Associated Press has reported that MSHA, mine operators and the United Mine Workers union want monitors that constantly track dust levels, but MSHA needs regulatory criteria for approving the new technology. MSHA will conduct the public hearing July 8 at its headquarters in Arlington, Va.
Until then, it’s a waiting game. Although the mining industry is coming off one of its safest years in recent history — a record low 53 fatalities were reported in 2008 — more safety measures are needed to ensure that the number of fatalities continues to decline and that fewer miners are being diagnosed with black lung disease.
As MSHA reports, nearly every coal miner — and his or her family — knows the destructive impact of black lung disease, which is caused by the inhalation of excessive levels of respirable coal mine dust. This incurable disease can devastate a miner’s quality of life, take its toll on a miner’s family and even cause death. Black lung disease claims the lives of approximately 1,000 miners each year, and since the mid-1980s, more than 21,000 miners have been killed because of exposure to high levels of coal dust.
While progress has been made to reduce the dust levels in mines, black lung continues to occur among coal miners. MSHA’s latest proposal will help alert miners to the high levels of coal dust and cause them to seek safety, which could help reverse recent trends: Despite an early decrease of the proportion of coal miners who have black lung disease — a 90 percent decrease since the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act became law in 1969 — rates of black lung are on the rise and have almost doubled in the past 10 years.
As the federal agency whose mission is to reduce deaths, injuries and illnesses in the nation’s mines as well as develop and enforce safety and health rules applying to all U.S. mines, MSHA is on the right track with the proposed changes.
- Opinion
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Student protestors get great civics lesson
Senior projects may be an issue for East Fairmont High School seniors, but we believe a large group of them demonstrated that they were paying attention in civics class.
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North Marion girls impressive in defending championship
The North Marion girls’ basketball team this past season was quite predictable.
It was probably only a few minutes after the Huskies won the 2009 Class AAA championship in the state high school tournament in Charleston that the first fan predicted that “we’ll win it again next year.”
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Elders deserve more relief via in-home care funding
In February, the Gazette reported that more than 900 fragile West Virginia elders had qualified for in-home care, but were getting no help because the Manchin administration says there is no money left for that program.
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Mine officials’ swift action may have saved lives
While it was hard to watch Patriot Coal Corp.’s Federal No. 2 Mine halt production a few times over the past month, we have to believe that swift action on the part of mine, union and federal officials may have saved lives.
Stopping mining at the operation means placing a financial burden on the miners who work there, we understand, but conditions were such that an explosion like the one that took the lives of 12 miners just four years ago in Sago was possible.
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Voters: Scrap it and rewrite it
A few weeks.
A lot can happen in a few weeks. Just think, a few weeks ago, we were all lamenting the snow and poor road conditions. Now we’ve had enough spring-like weather over the past couple of days that the only snow left is the clumps in parking lots from the plows. And even those are melting faster than a Dairy Creme Corner ice cream cone on a hot July day.
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Area women’s basketball programs have come long way
For many years, women’s basketball just seemed to many observers to be just something for young girls and women to do prior to the “real games” being played by boys and men. It took a long time before women’s games were even covered by the media — and that includes radio and television as well as newspapers.
Fortunately, opinions have changed over the years.
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City must practice responsible fiscal policy
The employees of the City of Fairmont have a reason to celebrate.
For the first time in three years, since a water crisis crippled the city and its finances in the early months of 2007, employees will get one-time pay increases worth about $750.
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Laws needed to regulate development of resources
The Marcellus shale formations, which extend throughout the Eastern United States, remain a largely untapped reserve of natural gas. And that makes it a prime target for energy development.
But local legislators want a little regulation when it comes to the extraction of the natural resource. Drillers tap millions of gallons of water from streams and rivers so as to bore into the rock formations that trap the state’s abundant reserves of natural gas.
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Broadband access vital to state’s future
The Mountain State is receiving $126.3 million in federal stimulus funding for a proposed statewide broadband infrastructure project.
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Here’s to dodging those potholes
There’s always this span of time when the snow melts and the beauty of the landscape suffers for it. Bare trees once frosted with snow are just bare again. The streets and sidewalks are covered with cinders and dust.
The brighter the sun shines, the uglier it looks.
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Student protestors get great civics lesson
