Published: June 11, 2009 03:34 am      

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.