NPR and the Center for Public Integrity have learned that the Mine Safety and Health Administration and the Labor Department are putting together a team of agency experts and lawyers to specifically consider how to bolster coal mine dust enforcement given the statutory and regulatory weaknesses detailed by NPR and CPI this week in stories about the resurgence of black lung.
The effort includes discussion of how the agency might be more aggressive in filing civil and criminal actions against mining companies that violate coal mine dust standards, according to an internal Labor Department communication obtained by NPR.
Black lung is the disease that steals the breath of coal miners and is both incurable and irreversible in later stages. It is caused by inhalation of excessive coal mine dust.
An NPR and CPI investigation found that the disease has spiked in the last decade, especially in portions of Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia. NPR and CPI documented weak enforcement by federal regulators and cheating by mining companies involving the system that is supposed to limit exposure to coal mine dust.
From 1980 through 2002, the Justice Department successfully prosecuted close to 200 mining company managers and contractors for falsifying mine dust compliance samples, according to federal records obtained by CPI and NPR.
But MSHA said that there have been no convictions since then. The agency declines to say whether there have been any attempted prosecutions since 2002.
Between 2000 and 2011, MSHA issued a relatively small number of coal mine dust violations despite thousands of samples with excessive dust. MSHA data obtained by CPI and NPR show that 53,000 valid samples contained more dust than standards permit but the agency issued less than 2,400 violations.
MSHA also says that since 2009, 14 mining company officials and contractors were "decertified" by the agency in response to problems with mine dust sampling.
Mr Larry Grayson a mine safety and health expert at Penn State University who has studied mine dust enforcement said that "We have to get these people with consequences so high they won't do it.”
Mr Grayson said that the new MSHA initiative might help "if the consequences for those who are caught are serious enough to send a clarion call to others with a penchant to disregard good mining practices and regulations."
MSHA did not respond specifically to questions about the mine dust enforcement discussions.
MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere said that "It is obvious more needs to be done. We're carefully reviewing the issues that were raised by NPR and CPI, and are committed to taking whatever actions are necessary to end black lung disease."
MSHA has proposed significant changes in coal mine dust enforcement, but the proposal does not do away with the kind of self-policing that some mining companies have abused.
The MSHA proposal has been stalled by House Republicans, who requested a review of the research documenting the resurgence of black lung. The Government Accountability Office expects to issue a report sometime next month.
Source - National Public Radio
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