Black Lung Cases Surge Across The Country
Since coal began being produced on an industrial scale in the United States, miners and their families have suffered greatly at the hands of mine operators. The working conditions and company towns were oppressive and dangerous. From the early years of mining through the 1950’s , thousand of miners died annually in the nation’s coal mines. Fatal accident reporting shows that 104,878 miners have dies in coal mining accidents since 1900. In fact, it wasn’t until 1983 that the industry recorded fewer than one-hundred deaths across the industry in a single year. There is, however, much more to the story. For as tragic as these numbers are, they really tell you less than half of the story.
Depending on the data being examines, researchers estimate that over 200,000 miners have died from Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis (CWP) or complications from the disease. The actual number can ultimately depend on how the cause of death is documented on the death certificate. Recording the specific cause of death can have significant impact on the overall number of deaths reported as the result of CWP. For instance, if an attending physician lists the cause of death as CWP or cites a different cause, such as a heart attack, but lists CWP as the contributing factor, the death will be recorded as a Black Lung death. However, if a miner has been diagnosed with CWP but succumbs to a heart attack and the physician does not list Black Lung as a contributing factor, it will not be recorded in the Black Lung statistics. To some observers, this may not seem like a large number. However, independent reporting on the actions at Johns Hopkins University Hospital by Dr. Paul Wheeler shows just how significant accurate reporting on CWP can be.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) the occurrence of the disease declined from 30 percent among coal miners after the passage of the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 to about three percent by 1999. New studies released by NIOSH show that since 2000, the prevalence of Black Lung disease has increased nationwide to affect one in every 10 miners. In the coalfields of northern Appalachia that number has increased to at least 20 percent of miners. What is most alarming, is the severity of the disease. NIOSH has found that the prevalence of Progressive Massive Fibrosis (PMF), the most severe form of Black Lung has reached unprecedented levels in this area of the country. The study noted that, “The current prevalence of severe black lung in this part of the country is as high as it’s been since record keeping began in the early 1970’s.”
President Roberts Faults Government and Industry in Congressional Testimony
On June 20, 2019, President Roberts offered a candid and sobering assessment of the threat miners face with regard to Black Lung disease to the United States House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Workplace Protections. In his testimony to the Subcommittee President Roberts stated, “If you hear me say something that I raised in May of 2003, the first time I testified before a Congressional Committee on this issue, consider it an indictment of this government’s failure to take seriously the known threat of Black Lung disease. Since that time, over 18,000 miners have died in this country from Black Lung. If Congress again fails to act, that number is expected to skyrocket in the coming decades. The Union has stated repeatedly that operator control of the Dust Sampling Program and MSHA’s (MSHA or Agency) inability and lack of will to enforce the law has caused this crisis. This epidemic is further propagated by medical and legal professionals that profit from the misery of miners unfortunate enough to contract this horrible disease. The fact is, CWP is a preventable occupational disease that could have been eradicated years ago, but for the greed of the industry and the failings of those who are charged to protect the nation’s miners. Until Congress passes legislation that requires MSHA to promulgate specific standards that protect miners and corrects the shortcomings of the current dust standards, nothing is going to change. Miners need this problem fixed now. They should not have to wait another day for Congress to act.”
Industry and MSHA Beg for More Time
Despite all that is known about the cause of the disease and injury it has inflicted on miners and their families, representatives from MSHA and the industry pleaded that it was too soon for Congress to act. They actually had the audacity to tell Members of the Subcommittee that they would need a decade or possibly two in order to evaluate the current effects of respirable coal dust on miners’ health. They pleaded for more time, more studies, more data and quite frankly more of the same inaction, deception and fraud that has plagued the sampling program since its inception. The Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Health and Safety actually spent the bulk of his testimony trying to avoid addressing the matter. Instead, he discussed merging the coal and metal/non metal inspectorate together to reduce travel expenses and the fact that the Agency had completed its Congressionally mandated inspections for the previous year. Neither the industry or MSHA brought anything new to the discussions. Instead, they deflected blame and attempted to confuse the issue.
In closing his testimony to the Subcommittee President Roberts stated that, “The request for additional time is unacceptable. The Black Lung crisis exists in the coalfields today, it is killing miners today, we have the information necessary to deal with this problem now. There is no justifiable reason for Congress and the Agency to delay in taking immediate steps to finally eradicate this disease.”
President Roberts then listed five initiatives that Congress should force the Agency to immediately implement to deal with the Crisis. They included requiring MSHA to conduct all respirable dust compliance sampling and ending operator participation in the program, reducing the current Permissible Exposure Limit and create a separate enforceable standard for silica, expanding miners’ rights under 103(f) of the Mine Act, increase miner representation at nonunion operations and restoring the Black Lung Trust’s funding stream.
President Roberts’ testimony specifically outlined what Congress and MSHA must immediately do to begin the process of more effectively protecting miners from the known hazards of the industry.
1.Congress must take necessary action to require the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration assume the responsibility for conducting all respirable dust sampling used to ensure mine operators are in compliance with all aspects of the Respirable Dust Sampling Program. The standard must require that a Representative of the Secretary be present for all such sampling for the entire duration of the sampling process.
- This can be accomplished either through immediate Congressional legislative action or by Congress directing MSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard meeting this requirement.
- In an effort to pay for any additional financial burden this new sampling program would impose on MSHA, Congress must require the Agency to issue an emergency temporary standard that permits it to charge a fee for service or any other reasonable method to recover the cost associated with the program.
- Congress must direct MSHA to move immediately after the issuance of these emergency standards to codify them into regulation by promulgating a permanent standard that accomplishes these goals.
2. Congress must take necessary action to require the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration promulgate an emergency temporary standard that creates a separate Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) for silica. The Standard must set the PEL at the current level recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
- This can be accomplished either through immediate Congressional legislative action or by Congress directing MSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard meeting this requirement.
- The emergency standard must require that the PEL for silica be separate and distinct from the Respirable Dust Standard and enforceable in accordance with all other standards established by the Agency.
- MSHA must implement a sampling program for silica similar to the current Respirable Dust Sampling Program. MSHA must be responsible for conducting all respirable dust sampling used to ensure mine operators are in compliance with all aspects of the silica standard.
- In an effort to pay for any additional financial burden this new sampling program would impose on MSHA, Congress must require the Agency to issue an emergency temporary standard that permits it to charge a fee for service or any other reasonable method to recover the cost associated with the program.
- Congress must direct MSHA to move immediately after the issuance of these emergency standards to codify them into regulation by promulgating a permanent standard that accomplishes these goals.
3. Congress must take necessary action to require the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration promulgate an emergency temporary standard that expands the 103(f) “walk around” rights afforded miners. The standard must permit the Representative of the Miners the right to participate in all activity conducted by a Representative of the Secretary while on mine property or in any activity that directly impacts the health and safety of miners at the operation.
- This can be accomplished either through immediate Congressional legislative action or by Congress directing MSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard meeting this requirement.
- This emergency temporary standard must require the mine operator to compensate all Representatives of the Miners who participate in such activity at their regular pay, including applicable overtime, for all such work performed.
- Congress must direct MSHA to move immediately after the issuance of these emergency standards to codify them into regulation by promulgating a permanent standard that accomplishes these goals.
4. Congress must take necessary action to require the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration to address the problem of miner representation and participation at mines not represented by a recognized labor organization and target such mines for compliance with all aspects of the Mine Act and all rules promulgated by the Agency to advance the safety and health of the miners. MSHA targeting should be active in nature, and include accident reporting, compliance history and patterns of noncompliance with all health and safety laws. Given the seriousness of the problem known to exist at these operations, MSHA should immediately start auditing and appropriately targeting these types of operations.
- This can be accomplished either through immediate Congressional legislative action or by Congress directing MSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard meeting this requirement.
- Congress must direct MSHA to move immediately after the issuance of these emergency standards to codify them into regulation by promulgating a permanent standard that accomplishes these goals.
5. Congress must take immediate action to restore and increase the funding stream necessary to pay for benefits owed to coal miners from the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. This must include coal that is produced for domestic use as well as coal produced for the export market. The increase must be sufficient to pay all disability and medical benefits, as well as retire the debt currently incurred by the Trust Fund. Payment of the debt must be completed in a reasonable and cost-effective time frame, not to exceed 30 years from the date of the legislation.
6. This legislation must contain language that does not permit companies who do not have the financial ability to pay for required benefits or refuse to pay required benefits to remain in business. In the event current mine operators are in arrears in payments to any beneficiary for required benefits, for any reason, the legislation must contain language that permits the Trust Fund to recover any assets it has expended to pay these benefits, either by garnishing the revenue of the mine operator or if necessary attaching the mine’s assets and selling those assets to cover the debt.
