Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 29, 1995 TAG: 9503290060
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
At Virginia Tech Tuesday, the chief of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration talked about Thursday's 25th anniversary of the federal mine safety and health law and prodded students for their views on the national economy.
Like other high-level federal officials, Assistant Secretary of Labor J. Davitt McAteer was sent on the road by President Clinton to mine public opinion in advance of Clinton's regional economic conference today in Atlanta.
"How are we doing ... How are we as a government doing?" McAteer asked the students. The answers are important as government sets public policy, he said.
Tech students told McAteer that the job market has improved from a few years ago and that the demand for mining engineers is better than for some other types of engineering jobs.
McAteer noted that the current economic upswing is different from past recoveries in that it's driven by the private sector rather than government, which, he said, has been scaling down.
The students and McAteer discussed the growing role of technology in mining and other industries. Some students said they worried that the poor, lacking access to technical education, are being left farther and farther behind.
Malcolm J. McPherson, Tech's Massey professor of mining engineering and director of a mining research center based at the school, said politicians don't seem to grasp that mining, agriculture and manufacturing are the three sectors of the economy that create wealth and that the growing service economy "just circulates money."
McAteer, noting the United States is the world's largest producer of minerals, agreed it's "like pulling teeth" to get people to focus on industries like mining. "We haven't done a very good job of saying this is an important business," he said.
Tech has the largest mining engineering department in the nation by student count, but McAteer was told the department's future is threatened by cutbacks in federal research funding.
McPherson, whose Generic Mineral Technology Center disperses federal research funds to universities around the country, said the center's federal funding was cut from $1.2 million for 19 projects last year to $860,000 this year and there are congressional proposals to eliminate it entirely in 1996.
McAteer on Thursday will take part in ceremonies recognizing the 25th anniversary of the 1969 Coal Mine Safety and Health Act, which was signed into law Dec. 30, 1969, and took effect March 30, 1970.
In 1969, 265 miners were killed. By last year the number of deaths had dropped to 44, while yearly coal production increased from 553 million tons to over a billion tons, McAteer said. "We're making progress; were doing it in the right direction," he said.
The Department of Labor has called the law the most comprehensive and effective workplace protection in U.S. history.
The law increased the frequency of mine inspections and gave more power to federal mine inspectors, including the authority to shut mines that pose life-threatening hazards for workers. The law set health standards for the first time, strictly curtailing the amount of coal dust exposure for miners; and set safety standards aimed at curbing mine roof falls and explosions.
In the 24 years prior to the passage of the 1969 law, 901 miners were killed in explosions and 5,035 in roof falls underground. In the 24 years since its passage, 133 miners have died in explosions and 777 in roof fall accidents. The prevalence of black lung disease among miners has also dropped by two-thirds since the law was passed, the Labor Department said.
Ironically, Virginia suffered its first mine fatality of 1995 Tuesday when a contract employee on a Paramont Coal Co. strip mine in Wise County was killed when an embankment collapsed on him.
by CNB