Lax regulation working out great for mostly Republican coal miners...

[senseamp]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrishamby/...highs-research-shows?utm_term=3x9ee0m#3xc7vwm

Black lung, the dreaded coal miners’ disease that had been on the decline, has roared back. The worst form of the illness now afflicts a higher proportion of miners than at any time since the 1970s, new research from U.S. government scientists shows.
The likely culprit, researchers say, is a failure by coal mining companies to use readily available tools to control the dust that lodges in miners’ lungs and causes the disease.
...Back in 1969, the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act limited the amount of dust allowed in mines with the expectation that the disease would be virtually eradicated. This appeared to be happening: Prevalence declined until the late 1990s, when only 0.33% of working miners had the severe form of the disease, known as complicated coal workers’ pneumoconiosis.
Then, to researchers’ dismay, this trend reversed. The numbers released Monday place the rate in 2012 at 3.23%, almost a tenfold increase. But even this number is almost certainly an undercount, as researchers previously have noted when describing data derived from the government’s surveillance program. Participation is voluntary and does not include miners who have retired or had to quit because of disability — workers likely to bear the largest disease burden.

Total coincidence that it stopped declining after the late 1990s...
Of course now Obama has to come in and mess up this self-regulation success story with more big government:

On Aug. 1, parts of a long-awaited rule from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration took effect, and regulators say it should close these loopholes. The rule also lowers the amount of dust allowed and expands the NIOSH surveillance program to include above-ground miners and expanded testing for all mine workers.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Wasn't Obamacare supposed to solve all this? Another failure for Obama.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

They were meant to die for their work. Obama is just trying to add burdens onto the poor with all this extra red tape.

 

[DominionSeraph]

They were meant to die for their work. Obama is just trying to add burdens onto the poor with all this extra red tape.

Won't anyone think of the mine owners? The bad press might make them upset. There really should be laws against this sort of thing.

 

[Ventanni]

Wasn't Obamacare supposed to solve all this? Another failure for Obama.

Unfortunately worker safety in mines is covered under the Mine Safety and Health Administration. If mines were covered under OSHA, this would have never happened.

 

[halik]

Err so what's the explanation for the increase? I don't see anything about deregulation in the 90s.

 

[1prophet]

Hypocrisy of Americans, especially the limousine liberals, cry out about the lack of regulations when it affects them, but give no thought to their indirect contribution to polluting foreign countries so they can enjoy their cheap products and then they cry out about no jobs and low living wages.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/arti...ns-outsourcing-pollution-china-says-un-report

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Why aren't these miners required to wear dust mask? I know OHSA requires the use of mask when working in dusty environments.

29 CFR 1910

https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=standards&p_id=12716

1910.134(a)(1)

In the control of those occupational diseases caused by breathing air contaminated with harmful dusts, fogs, fumes, mists, gases, smokes, sprays, or vapors, the primary objective shall be to prevent atmospheric contamination. This shall be accomplished as far as feasible by accepted engineering control measures (for example, enclosure or confinement of the operation, general and local ventilation, and substitution of less toxic materials). When effective engineering controls are not feasible, or while they are being instituted, appropriate respirators shall be used pursuant to this section.

 

[dank69]

Why aren't these miners required to wear dust mask? I know OHSA requires the use of mask when working in dusty environments.

29 CFR 1910

https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=standards&p_id=12716

Those masks get in the way of smoking my cigarettes.

 

[The Merg]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrishamby/...highs-research-shows?utm_term=3x9ee0m#3xc7vwm


Total coincidence that it stopped declining after the late 1990s...
Of course now Obama has to come in and mess up this self-regulation success story with more big government:

I'm confused. The reports state that the companies have used loopholes, which has caused the rate to go back up over the last 15 years. New regulations aim to stop that.

How is that a self-regulation success story? Or did I just miss your sarcasm? It's still early.

- Merg

 

[senseamp]

I'm confused. The reports state that the companies have used loopholes, which has caused the rate to go back up over the last 15 years. New regulations aim to stop that.

How is that a self-regulation success story? Or did I just miss your sarcasm? It's still early.

- Merg

Sarcasm meter definitely broken on your end

 

[The Merg]

Sarcasm meter definitely broken on your end

Got it. Didn't see a </sarcasm> tag and sometimes here in P&N it's hard to tell...

- Merg

 

[Genx87]

So the article claims the current % is under counted due to a voluntary reporting and not reporting retired miners. So why should we trust the .33% claim in the 1990s?

And what regulations were relaxed that would lead to this increase?

 

[senseamp]

So the article claims the current % is under counted due to a voluntary reporting and not reporting retired miners. So why should we trust the .33% claim in the 1990s?

And what regulations were relaxed that would lead to this increase?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/washington/25osha.html?pagewanted=all
OSHA Leaves Worker Safety in Hands of Industry

Since George W. Bush became president, OSHA has issued the fewest significant standards in its history, public health experts say. It has imposed only one major safety rule. The only significant health standard it issued was ordered by a federal court.

The agency has killed dozens of existing and proposed regulations and delayed adopting others. For example, OSHA has repeatedly identified silica dust, which can cause lung cancer, and construction site noise as health hazards that warrant new safeguards for nearly three million workers, but it has yet to require them.

&#8220;The people at OSHA have no interest in running a regulatory agency,&#8221; said Dr. David Michaels, an occupational health expert at George Washington University who has written extensively about workplace safety. &#8220;If they ever knew how to issue regulations, they&#8217;ve forgotten. The concern about protecting workers has gone out the window.&#8221;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/28/AR2008122802124.html
Under Bush, OSHA Mired in Inaction

More than two dozen current and former senior career officials further said in interviews that the agency's strategic choices were frequently made without input from its experienced hands. Political appointees "shut us out," a longtime senior career official said.

Among the regulations proposed by OSHA's staff but scuttled by political appointees was one meant to protect health workers from tuberculosis. Although OSHA concluded in 1997 that the regulation could avert as many as 32,700 infections and 190 deaths annually and save $115 million, it was blocked by opposition from large hospitals.

In the summer, the agency decided against moving further toward the regulation of crystalline silica, the tiny fibrous material in cement and stone dust that causes lung disease or cancer. OSHA promised a scientific peer review of the health risks by early 2005 and then by early 2007, but it never acted. Regulating silica exposures would have prevented an estimated 41 silicosis deaths and 20 to 40 lung cancers annually, according to OSHA.

In the spring, political appointees quietly scrapped work on another long-pending regulation of hazardous exposure to ionizing radiation in mailrooms, food warehouses, and hospitals and airports. It cited "resource constraints and other priorities" -- the same reason officials gave for withdrawing more than a dozen regulatory proposals in 2001.

More recent GOP work on the subject:
http://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...uld-block-osha-regulations-afl-cio-cries-foul
House bill would block OSHA regulations;

Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), chairman of the subcommittee on workforce protections, stressed that no one is questioning the need for OSHA. However, he indicated that costs of regulations can be significant and can cause employers to refrain from hiring new workers.

Rehberg's bill would also prohibit the agency from suspending a 1995 temporary exemption that allowed roofers to use slide guards, instead of conventional fall protection systems, when performing residential re-roofing and repairs.

Seminario noted that a rider in the appropriations bill would also block the Mine Safety and Health Administration from moving forward with a rule to protect miners from black lung.

 

[senseamp]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/06/coal-j25.html

US: New coal dust standards mean increased black lung for miners
By Paul Sherman
25 June 2003
The Bush administration is proposing changes to safety measures for coal miners that will result in the additional deaths of hundreds if not thousands of miners from black lung each year.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has drawn up a set of new rules governing the acceptable levels of coal dust that miners can be exposed to while working in a mine. Under the new rules, which are set to be finalized and take effect later this year, mines will be allowed to quadruple the level of coal dust that miners breathe from the current level of 2 milligrams per cubic meter to 8 milligrams.
Under the proposal, the MSHA will take over dust testing, which is now done by the coal operators. This has been long sought after by the miners, because it is common knowledge that operators routinely falsify test results. However, the MSHA is currently understaffed and the Bush administration has cut back its funding, meaning the agency will not have the resources to check dust levels. To get around this problem, the new regulations will reduce the current level of 30 samples per year to as low as 2 or 3 a year for some mines.
The new rules will also exempt dusty mines from meeting health standards if they provide miners with spacesuit-type helmets that filter the air. Miners object to these devices because they are heavy to wear, block vision on the sides, get covered with dirt and grease, and scratch easily, drastically impairing vision.
The breathing of coal and rock dust causes black lung, the common name given to the lung diseases pneumoconiosis and silicosis. An excruciatingly painful and deadly disease, black lung killed more than 55,000 miners between 1968 and 1990 and more than 1,000 miners still die each year. Another 112,000 miners receive black lung benefits, but these numbers underestimate the extent of the disease, since government workers compensation laws have been changed to make it more difficult for miners to prove they have black lung and thus qualify for benefits.

Excruciating death of tens of thousands of people, small price to pay for voting GOP.

 

[Oldgamer]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrishamby/...highs-research-shows?utm_term=3x9ee0m#3xc7vwm


Total coincidence that it stopped declining after the late 1990s...
Of course now Obama has to come in and mess up this self-regulation success story with more big government:

Yea I imagine this is the situation with many of the massive deregulations that have occurred with big industry like refineries, plants etc. I will never understand how anyone thinks it is a good thing to deregulate mandated safety on any of these very dangerous type jobs. But oh well...

Guess they cost will be enormous for people and the taxpayers who eventually have to pay to resolve and clean up said repercussions to this.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Women & minorities need to be 'outreached' to,.. and they are literally killing their own.

Who do they expect will vote for them in the fall??

 

[Oldgamer]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/06/coal-j25.html

Excruciating death of tens of thousands of people, small price to pay for voting GOP.

Well remember before our current POTUS being elected twice the coal mining Barons threatened cutting employees jobs (essentially firing folks) that worked for them if they didn't vote for Mitt Romney or something to that extent?

And there is this that is currently going on: The GOP&#8217;s favorite coal executive is being sued over political contributions. Here&#8217;s what&#8217;s up.

Quote from the article: "A former foreperson at a coal plant in West Virginia is suing her former employer, Murray Energy Corp., and its boss, Robert Murray, for allegedly improperly firing her after she refused to make political contributions to Murray's chosen candidates."

 

[werepossum]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/washington/25osha.html?pagewanted=all
OSHA Leaves Worker Safety in Hands of Industry


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/28/AR2008122802124.html
Under Bush, OSHA Mired in Inaction


More recent GOP work on the subject:
http://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...uld-block-osha-regulations-afl-cio-cries-foul
House bill would block OSHA regulations;

If only we had some way to have another President after Bush left, then this leadership vacuum could have been filled . . .

Also, at least until the War on Coal miners were very heavily Democrat, not Republican, because of the unions.

 

[senseamp]

Well remember before our current POTUS being elected twice the coal mining Barons threatened cutting employees jobs (essentially firing folks) that worked for them if they didn't vote for Mitt Romney or something to that extent?

And there is this that is currently going on: The GOP&#8217;s favorite coal executive is being sued over political contributions. Here&#8217;s what&#8217;s up.

Quote from the article: "A former foreperson at a coal plant in West Virginia is suing her former employer, Murray Energy Corp., and its boss, Robert Murray, for allegedly improperly firing her after she refused to make political contributions to Murray's chosen candidates."

"Asking" coal miners to financially support people whose elections will lead to the miners' own excruciating early deaths is a nice touch.

 

[senseamp]

If only we had some way to have another President after Bush left, then this leadership vacuum could have been filled . . .

Also, at least until the War on Coal miners were very heavily Democrat, not Republican, because of the unions.

Correct, new regulations on mining were introduced in 2009, after Obama got elected. I guess you think this is a complete coincidence too, relaxation of the regulations under Bush leading to early excruciating suffocation deaths of tens of thousands of miners, and tightening of those regulations under Obama in face of Republican opposition. Nothing to do with Republican small government ideology that you support.

 

[UNCjigga]

Damn those government bureaucrats and taxpayer funded scientists, damn them to HELL for pushing their mine safety agenda!!

I guess if you're a billionaire CEO and the guy you bought and paid for just became President, you can just write a memo on which regulations to toss out and consider it done.

Murray Energy’s ‘Action Plan’ for the Trump Administration
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/09/climate/document-Murray-Energy-Action-Plan.html
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4345546/Murray-Energy-s-Action-Plan-for-the-Trump.pdf

CUT THE STAFF OF THE US ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY: Tens of thousands of government bureaucrats have issued over 82,000 pages of regulations under Obama, many of them regarding coal mining and utilization. The Obama EPA, alone, wrote over 25,000 pages of rules, thrity-eight (38) times the words in our Holy Bible.
...
REVISE THE ARBITRARY COAL MINE DUST REGULATION OF THE MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR: This regulation provides no health benefit to our coal miners, and threatens the destruction of thousands of coal mining jobs.

 

[imported_tajmahal]

So you necro up a thread from Obama days to blame Republicans for something that hasn't happened yet ?

Textbook example of Trump Derangement Syndrome. You need ObamaCare. Just a little snuggle from Barry and you'll be fine.

 

[UNCjigga]

Sometimes I think it's better to necro a thread as a reminder why these rules were enacted in the first place.

Also, the Trump Administration is already on record noting that coal mine dust regulation is already up for review (merely a year after the final rule took effect)--given the public comments fiasco we had with FCC and Net Neutrality, I wouldn't be surprised to find 1000s of miners' names on comments calling for a repeal of this rule.