Tag: miner safety

Encore: The Rise of Black Lung, Inside Appalachia

This week on Inside Appalachia, black lung disease is back. In fact, it never went away. Now, younger and younger miners are living with a particularly nasty form of black lung disease. Regulators and the coal industry have known about the problem for decades — but they’ve been slow to respond. One reporter asks, “What would happen if thousands of workers in any other industry got sick and died just because of where they worked?”

Black lung disease is back. In fact, it never went away. Now, younger and younger miners are living with a particularly nasty form of black lung disease. 

Regulators and the coal industry have known about the problem for decades — but they’ve been slow to respond. 

One reporter asks, “What would happen if thousands of workers in any other industry got sick and died just because of where they worked?” 

This week, we’re talking about the black lung epidemic, Inside Appalachia.

In This Episode:

Advanced Black Lung Cases Rising

The blackened lungs of a coal miner who received a transplant at age 60.

Credit: Mine Safety and Health Administration

Advanced black lung is rampant across the coal-producing regions of central Appalachia, in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia. 

This is different from simple black lung, which is debilitating, but advanced black lung is known as progressive massive fibrosis. It’s the result of miners digging at increasingly thin coal seams. To get at the coal, they cut into quartz, which creates silica dust. 

Breathing the mix of silica and coal dust is much more destructive and like simple black lung, there is no cure. 

Advanced black lung has been documented for decades, but it’s getting new attention from federal officials. 

As part of our special program, we aired a 2018 NPR segment with Howard Berkes, where he met with dozens of Appalachian miners with advanced black lung disease.

Federal Regulators Are Crafting New Rules

Most coal production has been declining for years, but the metallurgical coal industry has been ramping up production to meet global demand. With increased demand, experts predict more cases of black lung. After years of inaction, though, federal officials are addressing the issue.

Over the summer, the Mine Safety and Health Administration proposed a rule intended to protect coal miners from exposure to silica dust. By the time the comment period closed in September, the draft rule had attracted 157 comments.

WVPB’s Emily Rice reports.

Recent Investigations Into Black Lung

Howard Berkes has continued to report on advanced black lung, even after retiring from NPR. Recently, he helped lead a new investigation into advanced black lung cases, co-published by Public Health Watch, Louisville Public Media and Mountain State Spotlight.

Mason Adams spoke with Berkes about what they found. 

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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by John Hurlbut and Jorma Kaukonen, Tim Bing, June Carter Cash and Steve Earle.

Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.

You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

You can find us on Instagram, Threads and Twitter @InAppalachia. Or here on Facebook.

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Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

House Judiciary Looks at Coal Jobs and Safety Act of 2015

House Judiciary took up a bill Tuesday that addresses mine safety. Senate Bill 357, also known as House Bill 2566, is the Coal Jobs and Safety Act of 2015. This is a big bill with many provisions, and House Judiciary considered a handful of amendments to it.

There were two amendments to the bill that stirred up some debate within the House Judiciary Committee. Amendment number 2, as the delegates called it, was an amendment proposed by Delegate Woody Ireland of Ritchie County.

Ireland’s amendment addresses when and how and who moves equipment within a coal mine. This amendment adjusts some language related to energized trolley wire, which is a way for miners to move large loads of equipment in shuttle cars.

Delegate Tim Manchin of Marion County proposed a rival amendment to Ireland’s. In Manchin’s amendment, which was referred to as amendment number 4, it suggests putting the language back in the bill that is currently law saying there would be restrictions on how the equipment would be moved.

Manchin called Ireland’s amendment a roll back in mine safety.

“This is a huge roll back in miner safety to take seventy some mines out of the control of this statute to say that seventy some mines will now be allowed to move oversized equipment with motors and other apparatuses that are being strained to their limits in carrying that equipment, to remove those from the provisions and to subject coal miners to being in by of those where they’re going to be exposed to those fumes and fire and all the noxious smoke that comes off of that is an outrage,” Manchin said, “It is a roll back in coal miner safety, it should not be permitted, that we have not been given any adequate excuse to do that, and therefore we should reject this. Men have died, men died to get this statute passed, men died after this statute was passed. Nine men, in Marion and Monongalia County died, I think it was in the 60s or early 70s if I’m not mistaken, because, for this statute, and now we’re going to remove that.”

Delegate Stephen Skinner of Jefferson County, a fellow sponsor of Manchin’s amendment, also spoke against Ireland’s amendment, number 2.

“The amendment offered by the gentleman across applies to a very narrow number of mines,” Skinner said, “The statute as it is right now applies to all mines and is safety focused. We should make the choice for making decisions based on evidence, and we don’t have that evidence here today.”

Delegate Patrick Lane of Kanawha County supported Ireland’s amendment, explaining that amendment number 2 was a good middle-ground and still addressed all the safety concerns.

“The gentleman from Ritchie has offered, what I would consider to be a balanced approach to making sure that miners in most of the mines where there’s a real safety issue with the movement of equipment are protected, but at the same time allowing that equipment to be moved in an efficient manner,” Lane noted, “and I would just remind people to look at the language that it says that a qualified person has to be in charge of transporting it, and specifically, as we heard yesterday, the primary issue is the energized wire that can create the problem, the real safety issue, and I think the gentleman has addressed that specifically, and would ask the committee to adopt amendment number 2 offered by the gentleman from Ritchie and reject amendment number 4.”

After the debate however, Ireland’s amendment passed, and Manchin’s amendment was rejected.

Two more amendments were proposed by Delegates Manchin and Skinner; one having to do with the diesel commission and inspections, while the other had to do with rail track variants from the face of a mine. Both amendments were rejected.

Senate Bill 357 now reports to the floor for its consideration.

Tomblin Hopes Feds Reconsider Black Lung Benefits Funding Cuts

 
Federal funds for black lung benefits in West Virginia were cut about 44 percent. The United States 
Department of Health and Human Services Black Lung Clinic program now limits awards to $900,000 per grantee.  

Last year the funds helped nearly 8,500 West Virginians suffering from Black Lung disease find critical services at eight clinics across the state, totaling more than 52,000 documented visits.
 
 
 
The West Virginia Bureau for Public Health has been a recipient of the Black Lung Clinic Grant program since 1979 and has provided oversight and technical assistance for Black Lung clinics statewide.
 
 

Last year, 14 states received funding.  Thirteen states received less than $900,000 and West Virginia was awarded $1.4 million.  
 
 
 
According to a release, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin sent a letter to U.S. DHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius regarding this change.  In the letter, Tomblin asks the Secretary  reconsider or “allow for supplemental request to maintain the standards of care and service” in the state’s black lung clinics.  
 
 
 
Congressman Nick Rahall also responded to the announcement. In a statement Rahall says he’s working with Rockefeller and Manchin to address the problem. 
 

Subjects in UBB Film Work to Separate from Don Blankenship

Families of the victims are bracing for another anniversary of the Upper Big Branch Disaster; an explosion that ripped so violently through an underground coal mine in Raleigh County it left metal and sent a blast of air miles from the source.

Former UBB miner and survivor of that fateful day, Stanley “Goose” Stewart remembered during a speech he gave about a year after the blast.  

Stewart gave the speech at the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

Four investigations into what happened on April 5, 2010 point to poor ventilation, poor rock dusting, and a corporate culture with a disregard for mine safety.

Then-owner Massey Energy’s investigation came to a different conclusion. The film called “Upper Big Branch: Never Again” was released earlier this week and makes a case for  the company’s stance on what caused the explosion.

Mine safety professors from the University of Utah join Senator Manchin to say they were misrepresented in the film “Upper Big Branch: Never Again.” The film was paid for by former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship who claims it “looks at what really happened at the Upper Big Branch mine disaster” that killed 29 miners in 2010.

Manchin sent a letter demanding the documentary be removed along with all references to the Senator. Manchin told West Virginia Public Radio that he is  angry and was lied to.

Manchin, says the company Blankenship hired to make the documentary, Androit Films, lied to his face when they approached him for an interview to talk about mine safety. He said they made no mention of the film’s ties to Blankenship. Manchin says he would have never agreed to be affiliated with a project backed by Blankenship.

Dr. Tom Hethmon, responded to reporters to say in part …

“My colleagues and I at the University of Utah's Center for Mining Safety and Health Excellence are outraged by the apparent manipulation of our interviews in this film. As a condition of our participation in the film, the filmmakers promised us that the documentary for which we were interviewed was about the advancement of mine safety standards in this country, and that Don Blankenship had no involvement, financial or otherwise, in the film's production”

In the documentary Blankenship, in part, blames MSHA for the approving the poor the ventilation system used at the mine at the time of the explosion.

“It’s other things like changing the way things need to be done underground, reducing ventilation, turning off miner’s scrubbers, creating an environment that’s unsafe for the miners and the government is doing that partially out of ignorance and partially out of the power that they have,” former CEO Don Blankenship said earlier this week on MSNBC. 

MSHA conducted an internal investigation after UBB and admitted to shortcomings. MSHA released a statement about those shortcomings in March 2012. Some included misuse of examination books, lack of experience, lack of training, “not identify significant deficiencies in the operator’s ventilation and roof control plans” and more.

In January the federal watchdog released a statement touting 100 regulatory and administrative changes since UBB.

Blankenship implies that Massey’s investigation has been mostly ignored because of his reputation.

Blankenship has been politically outspoken in West Virginia and does not believe that climate change is man-made. Blankenship again from MSNBC.

“The company did a very good job at the mine,” Blankenship said. “MSHA was at the mine every day and the explosion happened because of a natural gas inundation.”

Former UBB miners and survivors recalled a different atmosphere  underground. 

Massey’s report also disputes the role of rock dust in the explosion. Saying that the mine was adequately rock dusted. Rock dust is used to neutralize the combustibility of coal dust in the mine. 

In a message last night, former UBB miner Goose Stewart backed the other reports saying  while miners did rock dust, “the overall general rock dusting wasn’t adequate”.

Stewart also said a mine that size should’ve had at least two machine rock dusters working at all times. Stewart remembers one rock dusting machine that was consistently breaking. He said his section ‘did their best to keep it dusted (usually by hand, no machine),” he said.

United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil E. Roberts has also responded to the film, calling it “self-serving” on the part of Blankenship and “a feeble effort by one millionaire to stay out of jail.”
 
“The so-called documentary produced by Don Blankenship is little more than a rehash of thoroughly discredited theories as to what took place at the Upper Big Branch mine, said Roberts.”It flies in the face of the conclusions four independent reports, including those by federal and state agencies, on the 2010 explosion that claimed the lives of 29 miners.

Roberts went on to urge the U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate “all the way up the corporate chain of command, and ensure that all those responsible for the tragedy of Upper Big Branch are held accountable.”

Senate Ramps Up Voting as Session Winds Down

Members of the state Senate had 25 bills on their morning calendar Monday, passing almost all unanimously. Those bills included:

Senate Bill 623

The bill requires employers in the mining industry to report all positive drug and alcohol tests to the Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training. Currently, notification is only required if a miner is discharged.

Senate Bill 476

The bill sets regulations and standards for vehicles being altered to run on alternative fuels. The bill states that no diesel engine modifications for dual fuel retrofit can change the original engine in any way. A similar piece of legislation was passed by the chamber last year, but died in the House of Delegates.

0224EngineSPOT.mp3
Cecelia Mason reports on the bill.

Senate Bill 431

The bill lengthens the driver’s license renewal cycle from 5 to 8 years. The bill also allows for the development of an online renewal process and permits individuals with expiring licenses to be notified electronically.

0224DriverSPOT.mp3
Ashton Marra reports on the bill.

Senate Bill 469

The bill creates the Veterans and Warriors to Agriculture Program under the Department of Agriculture as a tool to integrate veterans into agriculture jobs. It aims to help West Virginia veterans find employment after returning from combat as well as strengthen the future of the state’s agriculture economy.

All four bills will now move to the House for further consideration.
 

Young Miner Dies in W.Va.

The West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training confirms that a miner died at Mettiki Coal’s Mountain View Mine in Tucker County.

In an email, the state office said 20-year-old Daniel Lambka of Kitzmiller, Maryland, “suffered crushing injuries”. 

The statement said the accident happened around 9:10 p.m., Thursday night.

Mr. Lambka had 2 ½ years of mining experience 4 ½ months of which were acquired at this mine. His position was that of general laborer.

State officials are investigating. Inspectors from the West Virginia Office of Miner’s Health Safety and Training have been on-scene conducting their investigation since Thursday evening.

The fatality is the first mine death in 2014.

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