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Bush Withdrew Mine Safety Rules that Could Have Saved Lives |
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A day after a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on mine safety and the recent deaths of 21 coal miners was cut short by the Republican committee chairman, the U.S. Senate held its own mine safety hearing with witnesses testifying before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
“MSHA’s [Mine Safety and Health Administration's] top policy makers have not been doing their job protecting and enhancing miners’ health and safety,” Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts told the committee. “This may be because so many of them were mine management executives before coming to MSHA. At MSHA they spend too much time trying to appease their friends, and too little time looking out for miners’ interest.”
Roberts’ comments came the same morning that The New York Times reported:
In its drive to foster a more cooperative relationship with mining companies, the Bush administration has decreased major fines for safety violations since 2001, and in nearly half the cases, it has not collected the fines, according to a data analysis by The New York Times.
Meanwhile, The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette reported:
A rule to give the nation’s coal miners additional emergency oxygen has been delayed while the White House continues to review it, government officials said this week.
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration announced the rule Feb. 7, but has not put it into effect by publishing it in the Federal Register.
MSHA officials submitted their proposal to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget [OMB] on Feb. 14, a spokesman said. OMB, which must sign off on agency rules, sent the proposal back with comments and questions.
Roberts pointed to some 17 rules MSHA withdraw from consideration after the Bush administration took office in 2001, including those that would have improved communications during mine emergencies, beefed up mine rescue procedures, established safety chambers and increased emergency oxygen.
Notes left behind from the miners trapped in the Jan. 2 Sago Mine explosion that killed 12 miners in the Upshur County, W.Va., mine, show the “miners survived for many hours, but in the end had inadequate access to oxygen to survive the toxic mine atmosphere” Roberts said.
Roberts noted that while MSHA’s leaders are responsible for the agency’s failures, “MSHA is made up of many dedicated civil servants, health and safety professionals whose efforts we deeply appreciate.”
He told the committee that MSHA is failing to carry out its mission that the 1969 law that created the agency charged it with: “to develop and promulgate improved mandatory health or safety standards to protect the health and safety of the nation’s coal or other miners.”
“It is apparent that MSHA has neglected this essential purpose of Congress. The entire country has now witnessed the terrible price so many families have paid for MSHA’s inaction and misdirected efforts,” Roberts said.
For example, he noted that MSHA has loosened the rules for using what is known as “belt-air” to ventilate a mine, as opposed to using separate intake and return airways that the 1969 and 1977 Mine Acts require.
A convey belt carries coal from the work areas to a surface area known as belt entry, which is the dirtiest and most fire-prone area of a mine. Using the belt-way or “belt-air” to move air into a mine for ventilation not only carries the health hazard of moving the dust from the recently cut coal back into work areas, but enhances “hazards when fire breaks out along the conveyor belts, including carrying flames and deadly gases directly to the miners’ work areas and to vital evacuation routes—dangers exacerbated by both the high velocity of the air fanned through the underground tunnels, and by the immediate availability of a fuel source, fresh coal,” he said.
Two miners were killed Jan. 19 at Massey Energy’s Alma Mine in Logan County W.Va., after a fire on the conveyer belt in the same mine entry used to ventilate the mine trapped the miners who were unable to find their way out of the smoke- and toxic gas-filled mine.
“I urge you to require MSHA to do in 2006 all that Congress demanded in 1969 and again 1977. Regulations that were in the pipeline 2001 and 2002 should be reactivated and finalized in a timely fashion. New regulations to protect miners—both while on the job and when emergencies strike—must be promulgated,” said Roberts.
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