Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 8, 1991 TAG: 9104090490
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A/8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLEN HESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
While the articles accurately cited tampering with dust samples after they were taken, there was no mention of a much more common practice: tampering during taking of the dust sample, which is taken for granted. We do not know of any accurate sample-taking.
The dust monitor is worn by the miner for his shift. The theory is that the monitor will show the quality of air the miner has been exposed to in the usual work sites underground.
In practice, if the monitor's dust sample is not in compliance with the dust standard, the miner is then required by his mine safety director to continue wearing the monitor for as long as a week until he gets a clean sample. If the miner doesn't get a sample that complies with the dust standard within seven days, he may have to wear the monitor for as long as 30 days.
The pressure to get a clean sample is twofold.
The miner is already carrying 30 pounds of equipment. In Virginia, most of the mines are low, so the miner is crawling and stooping in an area from 24 inches to 42 inches high. The added inconvenience of the dust monitor, which includes a pump and a hose across the chest, makes him anxious to get a sample the easy way.
The threat to his job, especially if the miner is in a non-United Mine Workers mine, is real if he rocks the boat by getting too dusty a sample. The lesser threat is that he will wear this awkward piece of equipment until he gets a clean sample.
So what does the miner do? He hangs the monitor in relatively clean air in the dinner hole or on a timber where the air circulation is good compared with the rest of the mine.
We dispute the position of Tom Altmayer from the National Coal Association. The mines are not cleaned up. With the increase in huge high-tech machines, and the lack of enforcement of air-quality standards, the dust is finer and penetrates lung tissue more thoroughly than ever. The batteries of the machines we operate are bigger than most of the cars on New York's city streets. When we grind up coal dust in three-foot-high chambers, the dust can make us invisible to our co-workers five feet away.
We see the dust coating our dinner buckets and our clothes. We feel what it does to our lungs over a period of years. Even after we retire, the damage to our lungs continues. Our lung disease has no cure, and it is progressive. It only gets worse as we acquire its side effects: lung infections, emphysema, bronchitis and lung cancer.
Those of us with black lung would like to offer a challenge to the coal companies: Find us an honest dust sample. Find us one taken in the last 30 days that was obtained strictly according to regulations in the work place and meets the dust level standards. We don't think you can.
The quotes from the industry reflect the idea that black-lung disease was a temporary condition that would be eliminated with cleaner mines. It is our opinion that the coal industry would rather pay fines for non-compliance than clean up the mines, because it is cheaper. We understand that the fine for a substandard dust sample is $50. The clean mines are a myth. Black lung is not.
We are looking at proposed legislation that would make black-lung benefits possible for disabled miners. HR 1637 and HR 694 would make the one-sided black-lung regulations a little fairer for disabled miners. Reform legislation would help us who are now victims of the disease. In the future, cleaning up the mines as much as possible in practice as well as theory would help reduce the chances for getting this disease.
\ Allen Hess is chairman of the National Black Lung Association in Richlands.
by CNB