Coal mining is a dangerous endeavor for both the environment and the miners tasked with extracting the substance from the ground. Continued exposure to airborne respirable dust increases coal miners’ risk of developing lung disease, can cause permanent scarring in the lungs and impair their ability to breathe.
Former coal miner Terry Lilly recently spoke to a panel of federal regulators about how coal mining impacted his health. Struggling to speak, Lilly informed the panel that he suffers from black lung, a deadly respiratory condition that affects coal miners after sustained exposure to silica dust particles.
The deadly lung condition has killed 70,000 coal miners since 1970 and is especially prevalent in the Appalachian region where miners have to excavate extremely deep into the ground to get coal. This exposes the miners to even more silica dust particles as mining machines cut into deeper layers of rock and throws fine silica dust particles into the air.
Although the condition is entirely preventable, and black lung cases had hit a historic low as the 20th century drew to a close, cases have been increasing in recent years, especially among younger miners.
Retired coal miner Lilly talked about the unscrupulous practices he had seen during his three decades in the coal mining sector, including tampering with and hiding coal dust samples. Noting that he himself had been a participant in some of these activities, Lilly said that industry players have to stop cheating on dust sample tests to keep black lung disease from taking more lives. This will likely require that regulators tighten their leash on coal mining companies and constantly ensure that they are compliant with employee safety requirements.
However, labor attorney Sam Petsonk says that mining companies are primarily concerned with money and do not “understand or appreciate” the miners, who allow the companies to generate billions in annual profits. If mining companies cared about their miners, said Petsonk, who is representing miners with black lung, they would have implemented airtight employee-safety measures several decades ago without any prompting from regulators.
The Department of Labor panel’s goal was to discuss a proposed measure that would place limits on the amount of allowable silica dust in coal and the mining industry at large. The proposed measure would be the first law to directly regulate the amount of airborne silica dust in the mining space.
Petsonk told the panel that the proposed measure should include air-monitoring requirements as well as citations, fines and penalties for mining companies that do not meet air quality requirements.
It remains to be seen what practical changes coal extractors such as Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE: BTU) will make to their operations once new regulations are passed to curb silica dust within mines.
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