The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration’s inspectors issued 213 citations, 23 orders and one safeguard during special impact inspections conducted at nine coal mines and five metal/nonmetal mines last month.
"Coal companies have made a war on their own future"
September 9, 2013
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is urging the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to move quickly on a U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) final draft rule that would reduce the permissible exposure limits (PELs) for respirable coal dust in mines.
Black lung disease rates going in the wrong direction
August 6, 2013
Frustrated by rulemaking foot-dragging on the part of the Obama administration, West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller has introduced a bill that would impose a deadline on the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) for finalizing a proposal to reduce respirable dust limits in mines.
A federal rule restricting workers’ compensation claims to black lung diagnoses based only on film radiographs has been updated to embrace the digital age. The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs has published for public comment a direct final rule and a companion proposed rule adopting updated standards for administering and interpreting digital radiographs for the Federal Black Lung Program.
A study of the lung tissue of miners killed in the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster has determined that most of the victims had black lung disease – adding evidence to the belief that the deadly disease is experiencing a resurgence in the U.S.
Since its creation, NIOSH has been responsible by law for administering a program that offers chest radiographs, or x-rays, to provide underground coal miners with medical monitoring for coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, or "black lung," the term by which this serious but preventable occupational lung disease is probably better known among the general public.