Word: coal
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...past decade, the annual death count in coal mining, the country's most dangerous industrial occupation, has dropped to fewer than 200, down from 1,000 or more a year in the 1940s. The improvement came from both technological advances and more stringent standards enforced by the Government since 1973. But now the trend has taken a troubling upswing: mine mishaps killed 106 men in 1978, 133 in 1980 and 155 last year. The Mink Branch disaster was one of seven major Kentucky mining accidents in seven weeks; since the first of the year, 31 U.S. coal miners have...
...miners' advocates, from United Mine Workers officials to Congressmen who represent the impoverished Appalachian valleys, what is going wrong is the Government's system of policing. There are at least 250 fewer federal mine enforcement officials than in 1978, yet hundreds of new mines to oversee. In coal-rich Logan County, W. Va., for instance, the local Mine Safety and Health Administration inspection staff has dropped from 33 to eleven, and of the county's 91 mines due to receive a quarterly inspection last spring, only 62 were visited. U.M.W. Safety Officer Donald Fleming detects a more...
...larger mining operations. U.S. Steel Corp., for example, operates 20 mines and has the industry's best safety record. But the U.M.W. and many MSHA inspectors-believe that only strict enforcement can stop the upsurge in accidents in small mines, where new economics encourage imprudent scavenging. As coal prices quadrupled during the past decade, Appalachian entrepreneurs set up small mines to root out coal from veins too narrow to attract major companies. And while only 15% of the industry's work hours are now spent in mines with fewer than 50 workers, 43% of the deaths occur there...
MSHA has not yet issued its findings on the Mink Branch tragedy, but Commissioner Stanley, a former miner, thinks that the blasting ignited coal dust suspended in the dank, clammy shaft. "We were very surprised by some of the things we saw in there," Stanley says. "The whole situation was very improper...
Inside the Mink Branch mine, far below the muddy clutter of wood siding and decrepit machines at the opening, the Hamiltons were taking coal by "shooting from the solid." This problematic technique consists of detonating tubes of explosives tamped a few feet into a coal seam. (Safer, mechanized extraction techniques would cost at least twice as much...