ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 28, 1996 TAG: 9608280031
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
Miners are healthier, and their work is much safer than in the past.
The fight for safer and healthier mines is not yet won, however, according to government, industry and union officials who spoke Tuesday at the 27th Annual Institute on Mining Health, Safety and Research at Virginia Tech.
Miners have good reason to feel safer on the job today than a few years ago but they "continue to have legitimate concerns about their safety and health, and all of us still have important work to do," Edward Hugler, deputy assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, told conference participants.
The number of coal miners killed on the job has declined so far this year, Hugler said. Through Monday, 21 miners have been killed nationwide compared with 27 during the same period last year. Virginia had one coal-mining death this year.
Current safety concerns for miners include prevention of mine explosions, transportation accidents above ground, hearing loss, respiratory problems and higher accident rates for companies that work under contract for mining companies, Hugler said.
During the past three years, the Mine Safety and Health Administration has stepped up its efforts to prevent mine explosions, including efforts to improve ventilation standards and conduct special inspections, he said.
In May, during a series of inspections for smoking materials, inspectors found them being taken illegally underground at five mines, including one in Virginia. Hugler noted that the last three coal mine explosions involved smoking, including an explosion in December 1992 in Wise County that killed eight men.
But other things, such as ventilation, gas monitoring and electrical safety, also pose potential explosion threats, Hugler said. A federal inspector recently found a methane gas concentration in a West Virginia mine at a highly explosive 13 percent, a condition that never should exist, he said.
In the 25 years before passage of the 1969 Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, 12,270 coal miners were killed on the job; but in the 25 years since its passage the death toll dropped to 2,764, a 77 percent decline, said Jerry Jones, vice president of the United Mine Workers of America.
"And although the accomplishments of the 1969 Mine Act are impressive, we can not lose sight of the fact that our work is not finished," Jones said.
Had Congress' recent attempt to abolish the federal mine agency and turn its duties over to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration succeeded, Jones warned, "it would have wiped out a century's worth of protections paid for in blood, death and suffering by hundreds of thousands of miners and their families."
Garold Spindler, president of the coal division of Cyprus Amax Minerals Corp. in Englewood, Colo., said continuing improvements to mine safety have stalled. Spindler, a former president of the Pittston Co.'s coal operations, blamed what he called the "politics of safety" for the problem.
More cooperation and trust among government, industry and workers is the answer, he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 linesby CNB