Coal miners are now suffering from black lung disease at a higher rate than in the previous decade. In fact, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the prevalence of black lung disease has doubled over the past five years. How is it possible that a disease that only harms workers with widely understood and available prevention methods has grown so widespread again?
In the struggle for reducing and eliminating green house gas emissions, coal is often targeted, for good reason, as the main enemy. The fact is that 50 percent of the electricity used in US cities is created by burning coal. Top climate change scientists have identified the end of coal as the best and most direct way to reverse global warming. While we must support a rapid transition to renewable sources of energy other than coal, because of its prevalence in the energy sector for the time being, the fact is that coal will not be disappearing immediately. A period of transition to alternatives is likely to take time.
It is worth noting that some alternatives to coal, e.g. nuclear power and biofuels, present their own climate and human problems. Science has yet to produce adequate protections from the harm caused by nuclear waste. The production of biofuels links energy usage and cost to human food consumption, driving up global food prices and hurting impoverished populations around the world. Renewable energy promises no utopian future without complicated problems to solve.
During the period of transition to renewable energy sources, calling for the end of the use of coal and failing to demand or provide for the safety and health of coal miners is not a working class or humane demand. Unfortunately, some proponents of the renewable energy industries may be thinking that because coal is a thing of the past, investing in protecting coal miners is not a high priority anymore.
In addition, demanding the end of coal but ignoring the need to provide strong safety and health protections for coal miners or to clean up of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) waste sites in Tennessee, for example, or refusing to prioritize the protection of communities living near the sludge of the existing coal mines in West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio and across the Western States, is a serious error. Likewise, demanding the end of coal and at the same time failing to insist that victims of black lung disease be given free medical care, as well as their families, for their entire lives is wrongheaded
Coal miners and their union, the United Mineworkers (UMW), must be part of the solutions to these problems. If the ultimate aim is to reduce the use of coal, some might wonder, why would the UMW participate in such an effort? They would be overseeing the end of jobs. The short answer is that the mineworkers have long participated in health, safety and environmental efforts.
Those of us in the field of job safety and public health care, and in the movement in general, have to admit that we let our guard down. The goal of halting and reversing climate change must continue. Our future generations are relying on us to make a difference now.
At the same time, we must keep our collective guard up to make sure that the coal that is being mined in Appalachia and in the Western States is mined safely. That means both pit and surface mining.
Speed-up Causing the New Coal Health Crisis
A recent post at the AFL-CIO blog examines the health crisis facing coal miners. A top scientist at the NIOSH provided epidemiological analysis of the crisis, looking at both the miners' exposures and the number of hours they work.
Dr. Edward Lee Petsonk, who headed NIOSH's black lung program, said that the current two milligram dust limit is set for an eight hour shift and a 40 hour work week. Is research found, however, that '[m]ost miners now say they’re working 60-hour weeks, and often 12-hour or 16-hour shifts.” Those extra hours of work represent a death sentence for many miners.
Petsonk said, “If you work 50 percent more, not only do you get 50 percent more dust in, but you have a lot less time to cough it out. The effect on the lungs is greater than would be considered just from the increase of work hours.” He then cited the “aggressive equipment” being used in the mines, the new high-speed technology that extracts significantly more coal, for exposing miners to greater risks. Petsonk believes that rock dust kicked up contains varying levels of silica in it, but on average they represent a risk that is 20 times as toxic as coal dust. Together, the illnesses created a death sentence that can and must be stopped.
MSHA and OSHA
Coal miners have led the way for the whole labor movement on health and safety issues. After a huge battle, the Mine Safety and Health Act (MSHA) was passed in 1969. Also, MSHA passed at the same time that black lung benefits for the care of the disabled miners were first won in West Virginia. The following year, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) passed, guaranteeing federal reform of state workers’ compensation. These two laws made the 1970s a golden year for workers safety and health and compensation.
When Bush came into power, he handed control of enforcement of MSHA over to the coal industry. For eight years, those CEOs who ran the coal mines and brought death and disease to coal miners and their communities were also hired as MSHA administrators and put in charge of their protections. The fox guarding the hen house is a serious understatement of this situation. Reversing this situation is an immediate goal.
Next Steps
The prevalence of black lung disease must be reversed and significantly lowered immediately. Hilda Solis, President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Department of Labor, provides significant hope that those workers can once again utilize their own government to protect them.
Under a worker-friendly Department of Labor, inspectors and medical personnel through NIOSH can be provided to workers and their unions so that those entrusted with worker protection can have a full set of weapons against greedy employers.
The passage of Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will be crucial to that struggle, because passage of that bill will make it easier for workers to join or organize unions collectively bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.
Improved working conditions, including safety and health enforcement on the job, will make it possible for mine workers to live their lives to retirement and spend their retired years without being crippled with black lung disease and other occupational health and safety problems. While federal OSHA and MSHA inspectors can and do conduct unannounced and requested inspections (they have the power of federal marshals), having a union to protect workers from employer retaliation and making sure the inspectors do their jobs is crucial.
EFCA will also help boost the organizing of miners in the Western and Rocky Mountain states where most of coal is mined these day. Federal oversight and worker organization can work together. That is why the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Republican Party will put their united opposition to these measures. They drop bi-partisanship when their bottom-line interests are at stake.
