Miner to Elaine’s MSHA: Tighten Limits on Coal Dust
We’ve spent quite some time detailing Elaine’s refusal to protect workers from combustible dust, particularly OSHA’s negligence in issuing an emergency standard after the wave of recent refinery explosions throughout the United States.
Witnessing the Labor Department’s continued stonewalling on worker safety, a Kentucky miner is now suing MSHA to tighten the limit on coal miners’ exposure to coal dust that causes the fatal black lung disease.
Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette explains the background on the issue surrounding coal dust:
In October 1996, a Labor Department advisory committee also recommended a tougher limit.
More than two years later, in April 1999, the Clinton Administration announced plans to tighten the dust limit. The rule was not completed before the Bush Administration took office and, in December 2002, then-MSHA chief David Lauriski dropped the proposal from the agency’s regulatory agenda.
This despite a September 2006 study by the Centers for Disease Control reporting a rapid increase in black lung disease, especially in the coal-producing regions of southwest Virginia and eastern Kentucky. It’s unfortunate Elaine and her cohorts continue to ignore science and risk the lives of the workers who fuel our economy.
