Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 9, 1991 TAG: 9104090526
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Miners nowadays can make $30,000 or so a year. Their jobs will always have dangers, but they're much safer than even a generation ago. Working conditions are greatly improved. And in the past 20 years, tens of thousands of miners have received compensation for black-lung disease contracted in their work: more than $600 million worth in 1988.
Still, if coal miners have come a long way, they have a ways yet to go. That is apparent in the Labor Department's 4,710 citations issued last week against more than 500 coal companies for tampering with dust samples taken in the mines. Those samples measure the amount of dust breathed by miners and are meant to help protect them from black lung.
"I am appalled at the flagrant disregard for a law designed to protect coal miners against disabling lung disease," said Labor Secretary Lynn Martin. She's not the only one who should be appalled.
The shame is spread widely. Virginia had the third highest number of alleged violations, next to Kentucky and West Virginia. In all, 98 Virginia companies were charged, including the four largest coal operators in the state: Pittston, Westmoreland, Island Creek and Consolidation. The largest number of samples reportedly tampered with at any Virginia mine was 57 at Island Creek's Pocahontas No. 3, in Buchanan County.
The citations followed a 20-month investigation in which the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration checked about 120,000 samples from 2,000 mines. The samples are taken from equipment worn by the miners, but if the dust so collected is blown out, this leaves a telltale white spot on the sampler.
The signs of such widespread falsification imply not only that coal companies regularly and routinely cheat where worker's health is at stake, but also that coal-dust levels are regularly and routinely high. Both implications are disturbing.
Martin says some samples may have been within the allowable limit of 2 micrograms of dust collected during eight hours, yet still were tampered with. "It seems almost an addiction to cheat at some mines."
Cheating can allow a coal operator to maintain production under marginal conditions and avoid potentially costly safety measures. The miners pay in the form of greater health risks. The company gambles that the miners won't get sick - or that black lung will take years to develop. Meanwhile, compensation for the ailment comes from a fund into which all coal companies pay on a per-ton-mined basis. Because the fund has been paying out more money than it collects, the taxpayers may one day have to make up the difference.
These incidents give point to the United Mine Workers' contention that letting coal operators police themselves is posting the fox at the henhouse. The incentive for cheating is evident. It is a way of passing on costs to workers or to other companies, or even the general public. The federal government must make cheating less attractive.
One way would be to impose fines high enough to alter current incentives. Martin says the feds now are inspecting every dust sample. Along with possible criminal charges, they will propose a civil penalty of $1,000 for each of the violations, or nearly $500 million. It would be fitting if all or much of the money from such penalties could be channeled to the black-lung fund.
Stricter enforcement to discourage future tampering would add to incentives for safer working conditions. And consideration also should be given to having the Mine Safety and Health Administration take over the dust-sampling program, which the coal operators now administer.
The Labor Department's shocking citations harken back to mining's bad old days, and raise fresh doubts about the coal companies' commitment to safety and compliance with the law.
by CNB